C.1 Private and collective sphere of women

During the Soviet and post-Soviet era in Russia, women have still been bound to the traditional division of labour, with agrarian society as its underlying basis. The Soviet constitution of 1918 granted women equality and the vote. In 1936, the Soviet constitution included equality for women in the workplaces as well. The Soviet Union formally implemented the equality of the sexes and sought to create the homo sovieticus – an ideal type of human transcending the boundaries of gender.

During Soviet times, women were actively engaged in work, social and political life. But at the same time, they were still traditional in the roles of wife and mother, taking care of their husbands and children. The differentiation of public and private spheres was a typical way of life. Anna Temkina notes that the Soviet woman was strong in the private sphere, and the traditional female sphere, the Soviet “kitchen”, was the symbol of freedom and intellectual life during the period of stagnation (Temkina, Anna 1996. Entering Politics: Women’s Ways, Gender Ideas and Contradiction of Reality. Voices in Russia Today. Dartmouth Publishing Company. p. 227).  At the private level, this resulted in two models of behaviour. One of them was ideologically-shaped macro-culture, wherein the publicly approved self was the role. On the other hand, there was the micro-culture which was present within the framework of the predominant culture which gave space for individuals to have a real private life. Is it useful to demarcate cultures and sub-cultures? Can we draw a boundary between macro and micro-culture? Is everyday life a suitable criterion of categorization? Does everyday life correspond to the private level, or does it influence both micro and macro-culture through private and public space?

Organizer: Ildikó Lehtinen, ildikolehtinen@gmail.com