Social Policies Essay Plan (Stalin's Russia)

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How far did Stalin’s Social Policies change the lives of women and children up to 1945? This essay will argue that there were some changes to the lives of women and children, up to 1945, because of Stalin’s social policies but they were only moderate changes. One of the changes that occurred in the lives of women in the years leading up to, and including, 1945 was that they were able to work. This can be seen because 13 million women were employed in industry and agriculture in 1940. This meant that women were being treated more equally but they still weren’t being treated exactly the same as their male counterparts because they were only earning 60 to 65% of what men doing the same job earned. Another change that occurred in the lives of women because of Stalin’s social policies is that 41% of the industrial workers in Russia were women. This then meant that women could do their part, within industry, to help Russia to become industrialised while Stalin got more workers to produce the raw materials that he wanted. Due to the fact that women were working in industry, they were included in the Stakhanovite movement which meant that they were rewarded for their efforts and were inclined to doing more work to get more rewards. As a result of this, they had an incentive to keep working and their living conditions improved slightly. On the other hand, women were still encouraged to have children. This can be seen because they only received state help if they had six or more children and they received 5,000 roubles a year for five years if they had eleven or more children. This shows that although women had greater opportunities, they were still expected to have as many children as they could. As well as this, women were still expected to do traditional things such as raise their children and do household chores. This meant that women were still seen as

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