Resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine “On serious shortcomings in the promotion of women to leadership positions,” July 4, 1960.
The Communist Party and the Soviet government consistently placed great emphasis on educating women and broadly involving them in economic and cultural development. The Party trained and educated many women specialists in industry and agriculture, as well as workers in science and culture. Soviet women have been working selflessly to implement the historic decisions of the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, dedicating all their strength, inexhaustible energy, and knowledge to the great cause of building communism.
Women constitute 44% of workers and employees in industrial enterprises and 53% in collective farms. In the republic, there are 1,371,200 women with higher, incomplete higher, or secondary specialized education, accounting for 54% of the total number of specialists. Many women actively participate in state administration: more than 167,000 women have been elected as deputies to local councils, 154 as deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, and 44 as deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The presence of a trained reserve of women who have demonstrated their capabilities creates ample opportunity for their more active promotion to leadership positions within the party, Soviet administration, and the economy. However, serious shortcomings persist in the promotion of women to leadership roles in the republic. Many oblast, city, and district party committees, as well as heads of ministries, departments, councils of national economy, enterprises, and institutions, underestimate the importance of this issue. As a result, very few women are nominated for leadership positions.
Only nine women serve as heads of departments in oblast committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and women constitute merely 11.2% of the total number of secretaries of city and district party committees. Over the past three years, the number of women secretaries of city and district party committees has decreased significantly: from 13 to 3 in the Chernihiv oblast, from 30 to 10 in the Kharkiv oblast, from 23 to 3 in the Rivne oblast, and from 10 to 5 in the Vinnytsia oblast. Women were elected as secretaries of primary party organizations in the Khmelnytskyi oblast (12%), Chernihiv oblast (12.3%), and Zhytomyr oblast (13%).
Only 28 women work as chairpersons of executive committees of city and district Soviets of Working People’s Deputies of the Ukrainian SSR. The number of women in leadership positions within oblast executive committees and other Soviet bodies has declined significantly.
Very few women are nominated for leadership roles in trade unions and Komsomol organizations. There is also a notable shortage of women in management positions across industry, construction, transport, and public utilities. For example, in the Kharkiv Regional Council, only 1.5% of directors in enterprises are women, about 3% are chief engineers, and 11% are shop floor managers or their deputies. In the Odessa Regional Council, women account for only 7% of factory and plant directors in the light and food industries. Similar situations prevail in the Kherson, Stanislav, and other councils of national economy.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine considers it unacceptable that some party and Soviet bodies, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture of the Ukrainian SSR, do not sufficiently prioritize the promotion of women agricultural specialists and experienced production leaders—who have proven themselves to be capable organizers—to leadership positions in collective and state farms. Consequently, the number of women heading collective farms in the republic has significantly declined in recent years. Women now make up only 1.3% of collective farm chairpersons, about 3% of production brigade leaders, up to 8% of livestock farm managers, and even fewer in certain oblasts. In the Mykolaiv, Stalino, Zaporizhia, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi, and Crimean oblasts, only two to five women serve as collective farm chairpersons. In the Lviv oblast, there are no women among the foremen and farm managers, even though these production areas are largely staffed by women.
Serious shortcomings also exist in promoting women to leadership roles in scientific, educational, and cultural institutions. Women represent 13% of heads of city and district cultural departments and only 9% of heads of public education departments. Approximately 16% of secondary school principals are women, with even fewer in the Poltava, Sumy, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts.
Party bodies, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade, the board of the Central Union of Consumer Associations of Ukraine, and the presidium of the Council for Industrial Cooperation of the Ukrainian SSR are not taking adequate measures to promote women to leadership positions in financial institutions, trade organizations, catering enterprises, and consumer services. This largely explains why only 6% of heads of oblast trade departments, their deputies, directors of trade trusts, canteens, and wholesale base managers are women—and fewer than 2% of heads of oblast and district consumer societies are female.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine resolves:
1. To oblige the oblast, city, and district committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine; the executive committees of oblast, city, and district councils of workers’ deputies; ministries and departments of the Ukrainian SSR; the Council of National Economy; the Ukrainian Council of Trade Unions; and the Central Committee of the Leninist Communist Youth League of Ukraine to eliminate the shortcomings identified in this resolution and to radically improve the selection, training, and promotion of knowledgeable women who have proven themselves capable organizers to leadership positions. The goal is to achieve a significant increase in the number of women in leadership roles within the party, Soviet government, and economy in the near future.
2. To require party committees to significantly enhance educational work among women, involve them more broadly in socially useful activities, and engage them actively in party and public work. Efforts must be made to continuously raise women’s ideological and political awareness as well as their professional qualifications.
Leadership of women’s councils must be radically improved, with systematic support provided for their activities. Party organizations should channel the creative efforts and initiatives of women toward the successful fulfillment of production plans and socialist commitments, particularly aiming for the early completion of the seven-year plan.
3. The Central Committee demands that oblast, city, and district party committees, along with primary party organizations, strengthen oversight of Soviet, economic, and trade union bodies in implementing party and government decisions related to improving women’s working and living conditions, medical care, expansion of preschool institutions, boarding schools, extended day groups, and commercial and consumer services, and to take all necessary measures to enhance their effectiveness.
4. To oblige the oblast committees of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the heads of ministries and departments of the Ukrainian SSR, the councils of national economy, the Ukrainian Trade Union Council, and the Central Committee of the Leninist Communist Youth League of Ukraine to report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine by January 15, 1961, on the measures taken to implement this resolution.
The Resolution of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) “On Serious Shortcomings in the Promotion of Women to Leadership Positions”, dated July 4, 1960, noted a significant gender imbalance in Soviet state administration. The CPU placed the blame for the insufficient presence of women in leadership on party committees and the heads of Soviet and economic governing bodies, who, it stated, “underestimate the full importance of this issue.”
In the document, absolute and relative figures were presented together only when describing women’s educational level, whereas in all other cases, the share of women was given only in relative terms. Such manipulation of statistics made it impossible to form a complete picture of women’s representation in leadership positions. By obliging Soviet and economic bodies to correct these shortcomings, the CPU essentially shifted responsibility onto them, even though it had all the means to increase the proportion of women in leadership through the nomenklatura system.