Where Have All the Women Gone?

In the Soviet Union women constitute 57 per cent of the population and almost 50 per cent of the labor force. Women are typically in jobs in which there is no advancement. They are the secretaries, the nurses, the receptionists, and the salesgirls. More than one-half of the members of the Komsomol-the youth organization of the Communist Party – are women, but only one-quarter of the party’s members are women. The inverse correlation between proportion of women and rewards holds true for geographic areas as well. One important factor is women’s cultural mandate, which has remained the same in Soviet Russia as in America, Britain, and the West generally, if not in the whole world. Equality of mobility of women can be achieved only with a complete relinquishment of existing sex stereotypes; but this means a change in the family structure.