The New Soviet Man and Woman: Sex Role Socialization in the USSR

by Lynne Attwood

According to the Soviet constitution, women and men have equal rights. However, it has proved somewhat harder to establish this in reality than it is to declare it in law. The Western literature on women in the Soviet Union generally concedes that considerable efforts have been made, but that these have been impeded by the survival of certain "sex-role stereotypes". Yet little has been said about the ways in which sex-roles are acquired in the Soviet Union. This book aims to fill that gap. It is primarily an analysis of Soviet writings on sex and gender, the climate of thought around them, and their implications for the development of male and female personality differences. It reveals that there has, in fact, been little attempt in recent years to overcome the sex-role stereotypes which stand in the way of equality between the sexes. Concern about the so-called "demographic crisis" has actually had the opposite effect.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990