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In their efforts to bring the good life home, women can be considered the unsung heroines of russian society. For many years they were the backbone of the Soviet economy, making up slightly more than half the work force. About 85 per cent of all women between the ages of 16 and 54 - hold regular jobs, the highest percentage in any industrialized nation. According to 1984 statistics, there were more female engineers in the Soviet Union than in all the rest of the world. One third of the Russia's lower-court judges and 70 per cent of its doctors are women. Although most women have regular jobs, most of the burden of housework in many russian families falls on women. Housework, Lenin once remarked, is "barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing". This condemnation does not prevent modern Soviet males from leaving the job to women. The men neither cook, nor wash dishes, nor change nappies, nor mop the floor. When they arrive from work, they simply settle down with the newspaper or in front of the television, and wait for their wives to cook dinner. |
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