ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which the Soviet authorities have attempted to alleviate this conflict and to assist women in reconciling their divergent obligations. Some feminist groups argue that the existence of special regulations applying only to women puts them at a disadvantage relative to men in hiring and promotion decisions and that they are thus discriminatory. Recent developments in the USA and the United Kingdom suggest that official policy is coming to share this opinion. In the later 1960s a number of commentators suggested that the list of prohibited occupations contained in the 1932 decree was outmoded; changes in industrial technology had rendered some listed occupations ‘safe’ for women while new techniques and new materials had made other non-listed jobs undesirable. The 1922 Code guaranteed pregnant women eight weeks maternity leave before the birth of a child.
