fewer Russians

Alec Ramsdell a_ramsdell at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 31 09:43:34 PST 1998


---Alec Ramsdell <a_ramsdell at yahoo.com> wrote:


>
> ---"Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu at mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
>
> Has anyone looked at the cultural impacts of the shift from a
> socialist to market
> > eonomy?
>
> I was reading an essay be David Mandel that reports a large increase
> in employment of women post 90-91 USSR.

This is just plain wrong, thanks to a typo. There's been a sharp increase in *un*employment of women. Sorry about the mistake. The following is from the essay, and concerns gender and culture issues relative to unemployment:

Women have also been affected disproportionately by layoffs. A major factor in this is discrimination. Eighty percent of the officially unemployed are women. Youths make up 40 percent of the officially unemployed. While the figure for women may be inflated by the greater reluctance of men to turn to employment services, women of all ages have a much harder time finding new employment than do men. Discrimination against women in hiring was given official sanction when the Minister of Labour stated publicly that it is natural for companies to prefer men since they are more reliable, not being distracted, as are women, by family responsibilities or by having babies. The greatly increased economic pressure on women under shock therapy has made them more vulnerable to sexual harassment on the job, which has become increasingly prevalent over the past years. Job advertisements, particularly in the private service sector, specify "good attitudes," "friendly girls," and "long-legged blondes." p. 5

and

"A key dimension of wage differentiation is the growing gap between women's and men's wages. Vertical and horizontal job segregation in the Soviet period, largely the result of unequal family burdens, but partly also due to direct discrimination, resulted in women earning on the average about 70 percent of men's average wage, even though they were better educated than men on average. With increased economic pressure on women today and the official rejection of gender equality, women's wages have fallen to 40 percent of men's." p. 10

_The Former "State Socialist" World: Views from the Left_, ed. David Mandel, 1996, Black Rose Books Ltd.

Alec

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