In the Shadow of Revolution Princeton University Press

In today’s Russia, feminist activism varies depending on organization type and how the different organizations deploy technology to achieve their goals. Newer forms of activism are more adaptable and make full use of social media, while some of the long-standing organizations are disappearing as a result of the country’s conservative turn and loss of international funding. There is significant modern public sentiment that opposes the presence of women in Russian politics. The findings of a 2017 independent research study reveal a culture “not ready” for female leaders. In 2017, one in three Russians “do not approve of women in the political sphere.” In 2016, only twenty percent of respondents felt this way. The same study also concluded that the 2017 response against gender equality among the “high echelons of power” was stronger (38%), comparatively, than in 2016, when only 28% of respondents submitted these sentiments.

• The prison experience can be a powerful catalyst for this transformation.
• Meanwhile, under Russia’s domestic violence legislation, only abuse that results in a victim’s hospitalization is criminal; first-time offenders are punished with a fine worth merely US$88.
• Gender-based violence is too wide a topic to cover comprehensively in one roundtable, so participants focused on just a few aspects.

Pamfilova has gained particular stature as an advocate on behalf of women and elderly people. The ending of Soviet assurance of the right to work caused severe unemployment among both men and women. After the 1991 fall of the USSR, many women who had previously worked as engineers, scientists and teachers, had to resort to prostitution in order to feed themselves and their families. The most frequently-offered job in new businesses is that of sekretarsha (secretary/receptionist), and advertisements for such positions in private-sector companies often specify physical attractiveness as a primary requirement . Russian law provides for as much as three years’ imprisonment for sexual harassment, but the law is rarely enforced. Although the Fund for Protection from Sexual Harassment has blacklisted 300 Moscow firms where sexual harassment is known[by whom? ] to have taken place, demands for sex and even rape are still common on-the-job occurrences.

It is important to note that since Russia is a multicultural society, the experiences of women in Russia vary significantly across ethnic, religious, and social lines. The life of an ethnic Russian woman can be dramatically different from the life of other minority women like Bashkir, Chechen, or Yakuts woman; just as the life of a woman from a lower-class rural family can be different from the life of a woman from an upper-middle-class urban family. Nevertheless, a common historical and political context provides a framework for speaking about women in Russia in general.

Russia

In the 1990s, experts and activists succeeded in improving health care, training physicians, and educating the public, managing to decrease risky sexual https://russiansbride.com/ behavior and improve medical care for women to achieve a 30 percent decline in abortions in favor of contraception. The situation changed when Russia experienced a conservative turn, the funding of NGOs ran out, and a number of legislative and administrative measures were adopted to restrict reproductive choices.

Education

However, Russia has ratified the UN Trafficking Protocol, and has taken steps to curb this phenomenon. Article 19 of the 1993 Constitution of Russia guarantees equal rights to women and men. Under the Labour law, women have the right to paid maternity leave, paid parental leave, and unpaid parental leave, that can be extended until the child is 3. Russian labor law lists 98 occupations that are forbidden to women, as they are considered too dangerous to female health, especially reproductive health (until 2019 the figure was 456). Women in Soviet Russia became a vital part of the mobilization into the work force, and this opening of women into sectors that were previously unattainable allowed opportunities for education, personal development, and training.

On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. For many Russian women cooking is a way to show their love, so be prepared for food experiments. At first the cuisine might seem absolutely normal and even a little boring. But when you get to eat Russian food more often than during occasional visit to her parents, you will have more and more questions. You might hate most of the meals, but occasionally there will be something great (e.g., my boyfriend loves Russian salad. He says it is because there is no cabbage there). A Russian woman truly believes that her partner is the best person on the planet, the most talented, the strongest, the smartest — and she is sincere about that, because she values herself highly too. And if she believes she is the queen, she’d only choose the king and treat him like the king – with the respect, care, love and support.

Citing a belief that strenuous jobs pose a threat to women’s safety and reproductive health, the government has barred women from occupations like aircraft repair, construction and firefighting. While the country passed reforms in 2019 to reduce the number of restricted jobs from 456 to 100, they will not come into effect until 2021. However, some of the largest industries, like mining and electric engineering, remain in the barred category.

Articles advising men on how to avoid mobilization proliferate in Russian media. “Legal and not so legal lifehacks” include not opening the door when someone knocks, staying off social media, undergoing a surgery, adopting a child as a single father, faking a physical or mental illness, and checking yourself into rehab for drug addiction.

Despite facing arrests and threats, activists and organizations are persisting in getting the message of gender equality out to the public. Innovations in technology and social media make information more accessible to the Russian people and change the perception of feminism from a dirty, Western word to something necessary to Russian society. For example, Cafe Simona in Saint Petersburg is a woman-only workspace and event space that allows women to go about their days without experiencing harassment. NGOs like Human Rights Watch also strive to inform both the domestic and international communities of the issues facing Russian women.