ABSTRACT
Heavy labor for women was glorified in poems and paeans of praise to hard-working girls. Postage stamp series depicted an idealized image of women working; posters and magazine covers proclaimed beautiful equality. The ideal woman in the "heroic age of socialism" in the 1950s was the worker-girl with "babushka" tied round her blond locks, a happy smile and shovel in hand. Industries traditionally dominated by women, such as sewing and dressmaking, nursing, textiles and weaving were further developed as female occupations. The breakdown of the employment of women in various economic sectors shows that the greatest percentage change in female employment took place in industrial, commercial, and transportation fields. The number of women employed in nonphysical labor grew by more than 100 percent between 1949 and 1974.
