We have over 80 Russian propaganda posters with women. Topics covered include emancipation of women in Soviet society, promotion of sport for women, the Soviet woman in the family, at school and the workplace, women in the Soviet space program posters and many others.
In the Communist utopia , according to Leninism and Stalinism, women were going to be completely equal to men. Therefore very serious attention was placed by poster artists and propagandists alike on the Soviet women posters category with a view to advance women's rights and inspire them. Here are all our 35+ other categories of Soviet posters in one place.
We ship Soviet women posters prints internationally to Northern America and Europe. We have canvas, lux paper and framed options.
Firstly, women did take part in the Bolshevik Revolution itself and had very important impact. Following 1917 Lenin moved immediately and applied wide ranging liberalisation laws for women in Soviet society. His government liberalised divorce and abortion laws, allowed cohabitation, enabled voting, allowed women to pursue careers as engineers and doctors (along with many others) and enacted a host of other changes with the intention to essentially make women and men equal.
The Communist party didn't quite expect what happened following their reforms though. Females, emboldened by the changes and the spirit of the time, struggling with the patriarchal Soviet society and its social norms, began divorcing their husbands, extramarital affairs and many children were now born out of wedlock.
This was putting strain on the economy, weak to begin with, and society. As war was threateningly approaching during Stalin and these processes were seen as weakening the economy and before all the military, he reversed most reforms. This ushered in a conservative and pronatalist era, these times for Soviet women would last for decades to come.
Headquarters of the women's “death battalion” of Maria Bochkareva | Valentina Tereshkova - first woman in space and an inspiring figure for Soviet women of her time. She features in many posters of the Soviet woman poster category |
Women in the USSR were no different to Western women at the time in terms of their domestic roles. They were expected to attend work and then do most if not all the housework at home. This piled great pressure on Soviet women. As for the workplace, females were largely equal to men and difference existed where work was perceived to be done better by one or the other gender. Women were very often paid less than males though.