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With increasing industrialization, the life of the average Russianwoman also changed. Records indicate that 25% of all industrial workers were women. In 1891 St. Petersburg, women made up 43% of textile workers. Dostoevsky chronicled the changes in women's lives. Russian women writers like Madame Mikulich and Lidia Charskaya produced fiction that found a huge Russian audience at the beginning of the 19th century. Wealthy women patrons promoted and participated in progressive movements in the arts.
The period following the Russian revolution was the zenith of the Russianwoman movement in Russia. Revolutionaries who gave equal rights to women also embraced the women's movement as their own, for Communist purposes. The Russianwoman became sexless laborers. With increased industrialization in the early 1920s there was a large increase of women in the work force, and this engendered profound social implications.
Regardless of the official status of equality with male workers, the typical Russianwoman never achieved real equality. A 1992 report by the World Bank, states that Russian women were generally better educated than men. Nevertheless, women held jobs of lesser skill than men and were paid less. But, the responsibility of taking care of children remained with women. A schedule was coordinated to allow women to work full time and also take care of children.
But, with the advent of market economy many Russian women, especially in the larger cities, have been freed from one of the most unpleasant tasks of the communist era, shopping for food and other products and standing for hours in endless lines. Under the counter shopping now has departed into history, and the need to know someone is no longer a factor for finding products. Money is now the main factor, and this introduces a new set of problems. For a pensioner, or a mother of three married to a miner who hasn't been paid for several months, the search for products is equally challenging. Of course a market economy allows for choices, and not just in the stores. The average Russianwoman who does not have to work prefers to stay at home. "New Russians" who are now driving Russia's economy often see a stay at home wife as a status boost.
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