Family politics and official attitudes towards female employment during the first and the second Five-Year plans in USSR

The history of gender politics in Soviet Russia of the 1930s is a topic that I am going to study as Bachelor thesis. This paper examines the formation and functioning of gender politics in Soviet Union during the early 30s of XX century. The main goal of the thesis is to figure how the position of women had been changing during the course of the decade due to such major events as a start of the Soviet industrialization and collectivization. Back in 1920’s Soviet Russia was still mostly an agrarian country, with a small percent of overall population working in wage labor. However, the ideas regarding family and the relations between men and women were quite progressive for that time. In the 30’s situation changed. Stalin tended to be more socially conservative than his predecessors in many ways. But still the situation with gender equality in means of employment changed during that period, due to the processes that were happening in the Soviet economy and society, such as industrialization and collectivization of the country. My main goal is to figure out, how exactly gender roles and the perception of the females in Soviet society changed during that period. My research is mostly has quite a precise chronological frames, which I mention in the topic of it. Those are first and the second Five Year Plans, starting from 1928 and continuing up to 1937. In the chapters of my thesis I am going to examine the situation with female employment and how it had been changing during the period. Another thing that I am going to study is a shift from more progressive family politics of the 20s and NEP era to more socially conservative one. I am also going to observe propaganda measures regarding female labor, new family values and reasons for it.