Women at the Gates
Gender and Industry in Stalin's Russia

The first social history of Soviet women workers in the 1930s.

Wendy Z. Goldman (Author)

9780521785532, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 2002

316 pages, 15 b/w illus. 25 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.47 kg

'… a specialized and highly focused study that integrates women into the history of soviet industrialization. As such it is recommended primarily to scholars interested in Soviet economic, labour, and women's history.' Slavonic and East European Review

In the annals of Industrialization, the Soviet experience is unique in its whirlwind rapidity. Even more striking was the critical role of women: in no country of the world did women come to constitute such a significant part of the working class in so short a time. They composed a larger percentage of the working class, filled an unprecedented share of jobs in heavy industry, and served as the first targeted 'reserve' for Soviet labour policy and recruitment. As women undercut the strict hierarchies of skill and gender within the factories, they forced male workers to re-examine their ideas about 'masculine' and 'feminine' work, and women's role in the work place. Using new Russian archival materials, Women at the Gates is the first social history of Soviet women workers in the 1930s.

Introduction
1. Guarding the gates to the working class: women in industry, 1917–29
2. The struggle over working class feminism
3. The gates come tumbling down
4. From exclusion to recruitment
5. The five-year plan for women: planning above, counter planning below
6. Planning and chaos: the struggle for control
7. Gender relations in industry: voices from the point of production
8. Rebuilding the gates to the working class
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]