The article analyzes various legal grounds due to which women in the late 19th — early 20th century could get a job.
Keywords: women's history, professionalization of women, late 19th — early 20th century.
The changes taking place in the Russian Empire in the social and economic spheres, which are increasingly gaining momentum under the influence of Alexander II's reforms, forced Russian society to pay attention to the acute problem of the lack of highly qualified personnel among both men and women. To solve this problem, it was necessary to provide women with the opportunity to receive vocational education and hold positions in various professions. However, it was quite difficult for women not only to get an education, but also to get a job in a profession where the majority were men. It should also be noted that at the turn of the late XIX — early XX century, there were not so many regulations that regulated the field of women's labor. In this regard, women were often biased, received lower wages than men, and had limited access to areas requiring certain knowledge and skills. But thanks to the reforms carried out by Alexander II, the ideas of feminism spreading throughout Europe and the Russian Empire, women's emancipation, that is, granting women equal rights to family, social, and work life, women still get the opportunity to work in many fields, including education, medicine, and other professions.
For a long time, Russian history has not known clearly formulated legislative acts that would regulate labor relations for women. For a long time, this area was regulated by customs and «traditional» foundations, which were not the same for different classes and cultural and historical communities. Women often faced injustice towards themselves, for example, their work could be paid half as much as men's.
It should be noted that there are few legislative acts in Russia that would clearly describe the issue of granting women the right to work. First of all, I would like to note that one of the first provisions granting women the right to work in a «non-traditional» field for them was issued not in central Russia, but in Finland. According to the regulations of 1864, women were allowed to work in the telegraph service in Finland, primarily due to the fact that there were not enough Russian-speaking specialists. In the caption to this provision, Emperor Alexander II added a phrase in which he expressed the hope that over time it would be possible to admit women to this work in the empire [1, pp. 271–272]. This provision was adopted in 1865. The same practice of employing women in the telegraph service was applied as a temporary measure on some railways [2, p. 26]. So by the beginning of the 20th century, women telegraph operators could be found not only in large cities, but also in the provinces.
One of the important laws concerning women's labor in the Russian Empire was the decree of 1871 on the admission of women to work in public and government institutions [3, p. 561]. This document listed various activities in which women could be useful to society, as well as provide for themselves.
For example, according to this decree, it was decided to make efforts to popularize and distribute special courses for women midwives and attract more young students to them. The aim of the courses was to provide an opportunity for more women to receive education in the field of obstetrics to work in various parts of the empire, given the limited number of specialists in this field. Also, in light of the positive impact that the work of nurses in hospitals had, it was decided to allow women to engage in paramedic and pharmacy work. According to the provisions of the decree, it was envisaged to support women engaged in teaching activities. It was also decided to allow women to work in various telegraphic institutions as signallers, telegraph operators, in the accounting department and in the institutions of the Fourth Branch of the Office of His Imperial Majesty.
As you can see, according to this decree, women could receive the professions of midwives, paramedics, pharmacists, as well as become teachers, accountants, and work in the telegraph service. However, due to fierce competition, prejudice and restrictions, entering the service for a woman became a difficult task. For example, when recruiting telegraph operators, they preferred to choose young girls, widows or orphans of former employees in this field. For many professions, there were restrictions on privacy, including marriage bans for teachers and telegraph operators.
It should also be noted that since the beginning of the 20th century, the formation of the women's movement began, which led to the creation of a separate Women's Progressive Party, headed by M. I. Pokrovskaya, a doctor of the zemstvo institution. The central branch of the party, located in St. Petersburg, began publishing a specialized magazine called The Women's Bulletin [4, p. 62]. The activities of this party were mainly aimed at solving various issues, such as the employment of women in difficult life situations, the development of various draft laws, etc. One of the most striking initiatives was a statement written in 1910 and sent to the Council of Ministers, which discussed the need to revise Article 156 of the Statute of the government service. According to this statement, it would be desirable to grant permission for the admission of women to both public and public service on an equal basis with men, as well as to grant the same rights to promotion and equal pay for representatives of both sexes [5, pp. 21–22]. Unfortunately, this initiative was ineffective and did not have the desired effect.
In 1874, the «Regulation on Pedagogical Classes» was published, which consolidated the training of women teachers at the legislative level. Already at the beginning of the XX century (in December 1911), the government adopted a law entitled «On testing female persons in the knowledge of the course of educational institutions and the procedure for acquiring academic degrees and the title of teachers», allowing women to apply for academic degrees.
It should also be noted that women in the study period received not only pedagogical and medical education, but also legal education. Although women could study to become lawyers, they were not given the opportunity to work in their specialty. According to some researchers, despite the fact that there was a need for women lawyers and lawyers, men engaged in this field considered women undesirable and dangerous competitors. It was only in the 20th century, in 1913, that the issue of creating and adopting a law «On the admission of female persons to the number of jurors and private attorneys» was raised in the State Council. Another resolution concerning this area was adopted in June 1917 by the Provisional Government. He issued a decree «On the admission of a woman to conduct other people's affairs in judicial institutions», however, it should be noted that this normative act concerned a rather narrow sphere of legal relations and a narrow circle of women. Women were allowed to practice law fully after the Bolsheviks came to power [6, pp. 94–95].
Speaking about the legal basis for women's work, it should be mentioned that women, in addition to working in the pedagogical, medical, and public spheres, also worked in factories and factories. In this area, one of the most key legal grounds was the laws that limited women's and children's night work and reduced their working hours.
One of the first laws that regulated the length of the working day and in which women were mentioned was a law issued in 1885 entitled «On the prohibition of night work for minors and women in factories, factories and manufactories». According to this law, night work of women and teenagers in factories that produced wool, linen, and cotton raw materials was prohibited. The effect of this law was practically not extended to other industries.
In 1890, already under pressure from factory workers, another law was passed that limited the work of minors, adolescents and women and was called «On changing the regulations on the work of minors, adolescents and females in factories, factories and manufactories and on extending the rules on the work and education of minors to handicraft establishments». Although some measures were taken by the State, they mainly concerned issues of night and overtime work, the work of women in unhealthy enterprises. At that time, there were no norms in Russia that provided for the provision of leave for pregnant women, any financial assistance or the creation of any special conditions for young mothers. [7, pp.99–100].
Thus, having considered the legal norms concerning the regulation of labor relations, it can be said that during the period under study, women's professions were traditionally associated with teaching, medical, government, administrative, and factory work. It should also be said that for the period of the late XIX — early XX century, there were not so many regulations that would regulate the sphere of labor. In this regard, women were subject to bias, received lower wages than men, and had limited access to areas requiring certain knowledge and skills.
In general, we can say that the process of emancipation of women is a rather complex and lengthy process that dates back to the time of the Great French Revolution. Over time, the ideas of emancipation spread to the Russian Empire. In Russia, by the middle of the XIX century, various prerequisites and reasons for women to begin to receive education and subsequently work in a profession had already been firmly formed. There were not many normative acts that regulated the profession of women in the second quarter of the XIX century, the situation begins to change for the better only with the onset of the XX century.
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