Women and Socialism
LAST FALL, IN A SERIES OF ARTICLES in the Ottawa
Citizen, Kitty McKinsey, a recent visitor to the USSR, informed
readers that equality for women, as we know it, does not exist in
the Soviet Union. “Unfortunately,” she said then, “‘despite much
propaganda to the contrary, women here (USSR) are not as
liberated as Westerners think.’’ And to support her argument:
“*The Western pattern of a male professional married to a house-
wife does not exist in the Soviet Union.”’
She is right as far as ‘‘the Western pattern’’ is concerned. More
than 90% of able-bodied Soviet women either work or study.
Soviet people believe that is the only possible way of enabling
women to take part in the production and the public and cultural
life of the country, and to enjoy equal rights and opportunities
with the men in reality. The idea that only a housewife at the
service of her husband is a genuinely free woman in unacceptable
in the USSR.
SOVIET WOMEN HAVE EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES —
that is certainly true, the Western media admits, and unlike many
capitalist countries, have ‘‘many government-organized benefits
for working mothers,’’ among which are ‘‘... fully-paid leave
when she herself is sick, 10 days’ paid leave when her child is
sick. If she must stay home with the child for more than 10 days
she is entitled to unlimited unpaid leave, with her job held for her
as long as the child’s physician says is necessary.’’ But “‘repor-

ters’ like Ms. McKinsey prefer to quote ‘‘several Soviet
women,” or ‘“‘one babushka’’ to deny that Soviet women have
equal rights.

THE EQUAL PLACE OF WOMEN IN SOCIALIST societies
has been firmly established, as any competent observer can
ascertain. Soviet women won equal rights with men 60 years ago,
when the Socialist Revolution of 1917 displaced the old system. It
is thanks to the fact that women in the USSR have for many
decades enjoyed the most extensive rights and opportunities in all
spheres of life that today they occupy an equal status with the
men in socialist society.

People with secondary and higher education are equally divided
among working men and w8men in the USSR. In the educational
and cultural fields of work, women make up 73% of the workers,
in arts, 45% and in sciences and their auxiliary staff, 49%. Soviet
women are active in political life, including the task of running the
state. At present there are 475 women in the Soviet parliament
(the Supreme Soviet of the USSR) which is 31% of all deputies.
The percentage is still higher in the 15 union republics and in
autonomous republics. That compares favorably with 17 women
in the U.S. Congress — 3%, or the eight in the Canadian House of
Commons, again 3%.

CREATION OF CONDITIONS necessary to Soviet woman’s
development of her intellectual and business capacities on an
equal footing with men ix the sphere of activity she has chosen —
this, not her perpetuation as a housewife, is the aim of Soviet
policy.

Provisions of the 10th five year plan (1976-80) extend paid leave
to care for 3 aewborn baby up to the time the child is one year old.

Women with children will also havea shorter working day. Right »

now Soviet women have a 112-day fully-paid maternity leave; 56
days before childbirth and the same after. A woman’s job is held
waiting for her for a year.

Standing commissions on women’s working and living conditions
and on mother and child care that have been set up in both
chambers of the Soviet parliament illustrate a concern for
women’s rights. In this respect also, Western patterns are not

only too cramped, they are hopelessly outdated.
* * *

Material in this column is based on an article by Alexander
Podakin of Novosti Press Agency, Moscow.

Valentina Tereshkova, the symbol of women and socialism, she
entered the workforce as a spinner in a textile mill, and became the
first woman cosmonaut. Women in socialism are guaranteed
equality in education and the workforce and the right to a job. To
facilitate the role they play as mothers there is daycare and

maternity leave.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 11, 1977—Page 6

Women in Canada

Women at work — the fight
for equal pay for equal work

How specifically does inflation,
and monopoly super-profits affect
women more than men? In
Canada the federal government
and eight of the ten provinces do
have what is known as equal pay
for equal work laws. All pro-
vinces have legislation which au-
thorizes a minimum wage board
or other agency to recommend
minimum rates of pay. In most
provinces wage orders are the
same for men and women. In spite
of such legal recognition of
‘‘equality’’ there has been no
significant change in the differ-
ence between male and female
earnings over the last 10 to 15
years. There are two factors at
the root of this difference in earn-
ings..First the kind of work made
available to women, and second-
ly, the.lower rates of pay for wor
done by women.

While women’s participa-
tion in the work force has in-
creased, the unequal pay gap has
widened considerably, showing a
high rate of increase in the exploi-
tation of women.

Women Vital Part of Work Force

Statistically, the place and im-
portance of women in the work
force is well established. In the
past 20 years on an all-Canada
basis the number of women in the
labor force has grown from
1,231,000 in 1954, to 3,359,000 in
1974. The total work force in 1974
was 9,682,000, with women being
34.7% of the total. Of employed
women, 58.3% were married, and
in their vast majority working to
provide an essential supplement
to family income.

The composition of women in
the work force by age groupings
suggests that women remaining
at work in large numbers up to
what is generally regarded as re-
tirement age. This in itself dispels
the myth that the majority of
women, or even a significant
number, are working to obtain
luxuries over and above their own
or family needs.

Nearly 500,000 women under
the age of 19 work, this figure
doesn’t drop for any age group
until 55, where nearly 300,000
women form part of the work
force. The peak concentration is
in the 25-34 age bracket where
nearly 800,000 women work. It
should be noted that this is the age
when most women are raising
families.

Employment by main industry

groups shows that clerical, ser-~ ©

vice and sales occupations ac-
count for nearly two-thirds of the
jobs held by women (roughly
2,000,000). Manufacturing and
associated occupations come
next with 662,000 jobs, and the
balance of nearly 700,000 divided
into such professions as teaching,
health services, legal and social
sciences.

The main expression of in-
equality as between women and
men in the work force is that wo-

men are generally paid lower

wages for doing work for equal or
higher value than men. While
some progress can be recorded
through trade union struggle in
reducing the male-female diffe-
rential, and in rare cases in
achieving equal pay, the vast
majority of working women re-
main as the victims of this intense
exploitation in the workplace.

Inequality in Job Descriptions

To perpetuate gross wage dis-
crimination, employers seize on
the most minute job detail which
may differ from onejob to another
to pay women workers less than
the men. And wheré there is no
difference whatsoever as be-
tween jobs, they more often than
not continue to pay lower rates to
women, an actual example being
a differential of more than 20
cents an hour in one factory in the
rate paid the male and female
washroom attendants.

The clearest expression of pay
discrimination is in the starting
rates paid by most employers.
Until recently, for example, in
Ontario, it was fully within the
law for an employer to maintain
two distinct seniority lists, male
and female, and two wage rate
schedules, male and female. The
lowest rate paid a new male em-
ployee, was, and still is, higher
than the top rated job held by a
woman, even though most jobs
performed by women require
quite a high degree of skill and
dexterity, and more intense appli-
cation to the work than most oc-
cupations held by men. This ini-
tial wage discrimination persists
throughout the wage structure.

Most companies have de-
veloped job evaluation plans, and
each company insists that its plan
is scientifically constructed, with

Any legislation providing equal-
ity of employment for women will
remain sterile until guaranteed
daycare and maternity leave is
provided.

Women occupy two-thirds of
clerical, sale and service jobs.

predetermined information and
properly weighted values as-
signed to particularjobs. But they
often have two sets of values,
male and female, with the so-
called scientific factors applying
differently according to the sex of
the operator. Scratch below the
surface, and gross wage discrimi-
nation is being practised with a
science label.

‘Itis also practised with the con-
sent of governments and under
the shelter of law.

Daycare Essential Demand

Demands on governments and
employers. should include
facilities. and special measures
which take into account the home
and family responsibilities which
women assume. The proper care
of the children ‘of working
mothers is high on the list of
needs, and very low on the list of
provisions made by government
and industry. Community
creches and child care centres are
simply not available to the major-
ity of family women in the work
force.

Insofar as industry is con-
cerned in places of high women
employment, child care centres in
the enterprise should be pro-
vided, with paid time away from
the job allowed nursing mothers.
Child care facilities is one of the
most important needs. Without
proper facilities equality for
women in the workplace will not
be realized. :

The fight for equality of rights
for women is not a struggle of
women alone, but concerns the
whole working class and all work-
ing people, male and female. The
status of women, their recogni-

* tion as equals in every respect is

an issue of paramount importance
to the broad working class and
democratic struggle against state

monopoly capitalism.
— Excerpts from a brief prepared
by the Congress of Canadian
Women

ee