Work and the household in the inter-war Soviet Union

Abstract

The article examines patterns of work and employment in urban households of the inter-war Soviet Union. Drawing on population censuses and time-budget surveys, it analyses trends in labour participation and gainful employment for men, women and different age-groups from the mid-1920s to the late 1930s. Particular attention is devoted to the division of labour within the household. The single most important change over this period was a substantial increase in labour participation rates, in particular among women. This was a direct result of the state-led industrialization drive of the 1930s, which simultaneously caused a booming demand for labour and a rapid decline of real wages. Households reacted to this challenge by increasing the number of working members per household. Self-employment, targeted by state repression from the late 1920s, practically disappeared, leaving paid employment as the only viable form of gainful employment. Within the household, the increase in female labour participation rates put a heavy strain on women, who came to face a double burden of employment and household duties, including child-care. In three-generation extended households, which were the norm at the time, this resulted in a division of labour between the generations, with the household members of working age concentrating on paid employment and the elderly members of the household on child-care and subsidiary agriculture.