THE FAMILY is alive and kicking and doing very well thank you in the Soviet Union today. This new book by two western feminists, Moscow Women, contains thirteen interviews all carried out unofficially. Is is a sad indictment of Soviet society.
The interviews were done in 1978, but the fundamental issues they raised in each interview reflect the contradictions of a society that started out on a new road, and came to sudden halt.
Women have equality - it is written into the constitution oti Soviet society. Both the state, and individual women explain that there is no need or womens movemen because they have the vole. childcare. All these training, gains are present and visible But the trap of 'tradi tional' women's jobs remains, especially for teachers and doctors. These are the service industries. The extended family role performed by women, and the fact that family remains the strong bastion of women's oppression, means these jobs are seen as less important. and women's work' and are lower paid.
But to the heart of the matter — the Soviet famiwho has wollar given birth to 10 children the title 'Heroic still nas Mother'! And the concepi of motherhood, of caring for children, is overpowering.
Reviewed by Steph Grant It's very complicated because the birthrate in the Soviet falling, and the officials are concerned. All the women interviewed explain that ine) wanted children, but couldn't more kids it would going out to work as well as run ning the incomes don't stretch that far.
At the same time woman's right to control her own DO•V mockery. Women can ex nect to have an average 01 abortions in their lifetime - It is use as d form of contraception. There is so much mistrust of the pill, women confuse it with Thalidomide, while other forms of contraception al c completely unreliable.
All this reinforces women's role in the nome șo it is all the more worrying when Anna, one of the women, explains: 'There are almost no differences left. Except in the home