ABSTRACT
Sociological theories of modern societies usually differentiate three encompassing institutional subsystems; the economic, the political and the cultural-ideological institutions. The emergence and development of encompassing economic, political and cultural-ideological institutions implied a modification of family functions and a new division of labour and exchange between the family system and the encompassing institutions. The changing functions of the family and the gender relations have been differently viewed in the various dominant political ideologies. The social policy of the Soviet Union focused in the first decade after the revolution on establishing gender equality and creating collective institutions for human reproduction, e.g. day-nurseries, educational systems, organisations in the workplaces and in residential areas for supporting the underprivileged and women. The workplace or other local collective arrangements have offered alternatives for the productive and reproductive functions of everyday life. Family life is also characterised by contradictions that have changed in content and proportion.
