Women at the Gates Gender and Industry in Stalin's Russia [Paperback]

The first social history of Soviet women workers in the 1930s.In the annals of Industrialization, the Soviet experience is unique in its whirlwind rapidity. The vast transformations that shook Europe over the centuries--proletarianization, industrialization, urbanization--were telescoped into a mere decade. The working class grew at an unprecedented rate, changing in size and social composition, and in no country of the world did women come to constitute such a significant part of the working class in so short a time. Women at the Gates is the story of a world remade, from above and from below, as women entered waged labor in unprecedented numbers.In the annals of Industrialization, the Soviet experience is unique in its whirlwind rapidity. The vast transformations that shook Europe over the centuries--proletarianization, industrialization, urbanization--were telescoped into a mere decade. The working class grew at an unprecedented rate, changing in size and social composition, and in no country of the world did women come to constitute such a significant part of the working class in so short a time. Women at the Gates is the story of a world remade, from above and from below, as women entered waged labor in unprecedented numbers.In the annals of Industrialization, the Soviet experience is unique in its whirlwind rapidity. The vast transformations that shook Europe over the centuries--proletarianization, industrialization, urbanization--were telescoped into a mere decade. The working class grew at an unprecedented rate, changing in size and social composition, and in no other country of the world did women constitute such a significant part of the working class in so short a time. Women at the Gates is the story of a world remade when women entered the waged labor force in unprecedented numbers.Introduction; 1. Guarding the gates to the working class: women in industry, 191729; 2. The struggle over working class feminism; 3. The gates come tumbling down; 4. FromlÃa