Soviet working women’s plaint

Press, 26 September 1984, Page 20

Soviet working women’s plaint

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Married women in the Soviet Union spend an average of 73 minutes a day on housework compared with 12 minutes contributed by their husbands, according to a report. The official news agency Tass said the authors of the report, which analyses changes in domestic routines, said the time women spent cooking and cleaning was an improvement over the 1920 s daily average of 4% hours. They made no comment on the imbalance between the sexes.

Soviet newspapers frequently permit complaints by married women, almost all of whom have jobs, that their husbands do little to help them run the household and rear the children. The report said women’s work was harder in the 1920 s when they had to fetch water, chop wood and light fires. It said electrical appliances had made housework easier but admitted that much time was spent getting them repaired, a reference to the generally poor quality of Soviet consumer goods.