Romanov Roman E.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences,Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Women Workers in the Defense Industry of the Siberian Rear (1941–1945)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-3-16
The Article is devoted to the study of the processes of socio-structural “feminization” of workers and socio-professional “masculinization” of women in the defense industry of Siberia during the Great Patriotic War. “Feminization” refers to the transition from male to female numerical superiority in the composition of industrial workers, “masculinization” – to the active development of women’s male roles in professional activities. The introduction of these concepts into scientific use made it possible to characterize and evaluate in a new way the historical phenomenon of the massive inclusion of predominantly young women in military production in the first half of the 1940s. The conditions and mechanisms of specific growth of female personnel in the factory teams of the Siberian rear are revealed. It is shown that this trend was due to intensive departure of men to the fighting front, and its “driving spring” was a labor mobilization of the unemployed population to the enterprises and the calls of the youth to the “state labor reserves”. Factors and ways of professional adaptation of girls in the industrial sphere are identified. The factors of such adaptation included the dangerous technogenic environment of defense plants, which had a negative impact on the physical condition of this gender-age group. Despite the hardships of the everyday working life, female youth successfully acquired technical knowledge and skills, and actively participated in socialist competition and rationalization movement. They were awarded the titles of Stakhanovites, held senior positions of foremen and craftsmen. Because of this, they acquired some typically masculine social qualities: the ability to work hard, rational technocratic thinking and leadership. All this led to numerical growth of Komsomol youth teams. At the same time, a generation of expectant mothers sacrificed their health on the altar of labor achievements for the sake of economic and military victory over Nazi Germany.
Publishing: 30/06/2019
How to cite: Romanov R.E. Women Workers in the Defense Industry of the Siberian Rear (1941–1945) // Historical Courier, 2019, # 3 (5). Article 16. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-3-16.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2019
Keywords: Great Patriotic War; Siberian rear; defense production; workers; women; socio-structural “feminization”; socio-professional “masculinization”