Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editor's preface
- Introduction
- Part I Soviet socialism
- 1 Knowledge and socialism: deciphering the Soviet experience
- 2 Economic growth and structural change in czarist Russia and the Soviet Union: a long-term comparison
- 3 Corruption in a Soviet-type economy: theoretical considerations
- 4 Soviet use of fixed prices: hypothesis of a job-right constraint
- 5 Technological progress and the evolution of Soviet pricing policy
- 6 Earning differentials by sex in the Soviet Union: a first look
- 7 Creditworthiness and balance-of-payments adjustment mechanisms of centrally planned economies
- 8 Comparative advantage and the evolving pattern of Soviet international commodity specialization, 1950–1973
- Part II Economic welfare
- Abram Bergson: Biographical sketch and bibliography
- Index
6 - Earning differentials by sex in the Soviet Union: a first look
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Editor's preface
- Introduction
- Part I Soviet socialism
- 1 Knowledge and socialism: deciphering the Soviet experience
- 2 Economic growth and structural change in czarist Russia and the Soviet Union: a long-term comparison
- 3 Corruption in a Soviet-type economy: theoretical considerations
- 4 Soviet use of fixed prices: hypothesis of a job-right constraint
- 5 Technological progress and the evolution of Soviet pricing policy
- 6 Earning differentials by sex in the Soviet Union: a first look
- 7 Creditworthiness and balance-of-payments adjustment mechanisms of centrally planned economies
- 8 Comparative advantage and the evolving pattern of Soviet international commodity specialization, 1950–1973
- Part II Economic welfare
- Abram Bergson: Biographical sketch and bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
At work, women in the USSR earn on the average less than two-thirds of a man's wage; at home they spend more than twice as much time on household chores as do their spouses. In these two respects Soviet urban society resembles urban societies in most developed market economies. However, Soviet women are much more active in the labor force. When coupled with unusually high participation in the labor force, undiminished, perhaps even greater, work at home imposes on women in the Soviet Union an exceptionally heavy double burden.
For women to bear such a heavy work load and then to receive low pay – compared to men – would appear to be in direct conflict with the egalitarian principles of socialist ideology. The obvious embarrassment created by this conflict may be one reason for the shyness of Soviet sources to provide data on male/female wage differentials. On the other hand, the broader questions of the status of women in the family and in society, the double burden of married women, restricted access to various occupations, high participation in the labor force – together with the possible demographic effects of these phenomena – are dealt with in dozens of books and scores of articles by Soviet scholars. Many of these studies emphasize how greater equality for women has been achieved with respect to education, occupational choice, income independence, and social and political activity.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Economic Welfare and the Economics of Soviet SocialismEssays in honor of Abram Bergson, pp. 127 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1981
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