Work and Family Roles of Soviet Women: Historical Trends and Cross-Section Analysis
分析苏联女性近两代人的劳动参与、教育、生育等变化，发现女性承担工作与家庭双重负担，并基于1000个移民家庭调查数据，探讨参与决策与生育、教育的关系。
Changes in the way of life of USSR women over the last 2 generations are very similar to those experienced by women in most industrialized and industializing societies. The rate of participation of women in the labor force increased substantially, and this movement was accompanied by a marked rise in the level of women's general and professional education. As a result, women occupy more white collar positions than they did in older generations, but these developments have created a double burden for most women who complain that increased resonsibilities outside the home have not been synchronized with an adequate increase in men's sharing household responsibilities. Historical explanations for changes in women's role particularly emphasize the nature of relationships between participation, wages, incomes, fertility, education and labor market conditions. The long term changes of these major variables, since the 1920s, along with an investigation based on an income survey of 1000 immigrant families, are studied in this paper. Cross sectional analysis examines a longer life cycle, participation decisions, and relates them to decisions on fertility and education. Fertility rates among the Jewish immigrants are much higher and labor participation rates of women much lower than for the rest of the population. Some of the main features of the long trends since 1926 are: 1) of the overall measures of participation of women, only those in the 15-54 and 20-54 age ranges show some increase over the 1926-1980 period, 2) sharp rises in specific participation rates for 25-44 and 45-54 age groups since 1950, and for urban women overall, 3) only a small fraction of the total increase in participation can be attributed to the increase in the proportion of single women, and 4) by 1980 the overall female participation figure rose to 80%--and 88% for the 20-54 age group--the difference reflecting the sharp decline in 15-19 age group participation. While the short run decision about participation is heavily determined by the expected wage, other family income, and the presence of small children, longer term decisions about participation are influenced by the level of education and by fertility--decisions normally made early in life. Although women's schooling is rapidly catching up with men's, their relative wages have hardly increased because the extra pressure of home and work responsibilities results in high divorce rates, lower fertility, and lower investment in human capital and effort on the job.