The 1990s saw an increase in female legislators; another notable increase occurred during the 2007 elections, when every major political party increased its number of female candidates. While there has been an increase in the share of women in politics in Russia, this has not led to increased gender equality in Russian society overall. One speaker relied on her vast practical experience in human rights advocacy to conclude that it is, unfortunately, an unsafe endeavor in some parts of Russia, particularly in Chechnya. She nevertheless urged activists not to abandon their efforts, especially where the Russian government is indifferent to local suffering. She offered examples to dismantle the stereotypes that women are always allies of other women and of human rights advocates and that men are always the perpetrators of violence. Rather, she explained, she had met with mothers who were ready to follow religious norms or social expectations at the expense of their daughters’ well-being, while fathers and brothers were ready to defy family and community pressure to protect their daughters and sisters.
- The prison experience can be a powerful catalyst for this transformation.
- Both the Soviet and early post-Soviet experiences need processing, and there is a clear need to reflect on Russia’s history and look back at the first feminist organizations and the people who laid the groundwork for today’s scholars and activists.
- 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.
- “I don’t know anyone who was drafted or taken away, except my cousin who is out in the countryside,” Sofia said.
- At the same time, women’s achievements are absent from public spaces, and many female professionals are in constant search of legitimation and visibility.
- 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.
The new forms of labor deprivation are unrelated to unemployment and impoverishment but have to do with the lack of life and career prospects. Millions of men and women in Russia hold precarious jobs with nonstandard work contracts. Many value such contracts for the autonomy that comes with them, but in the case of women, precarious jobs are often the result of their caregiving burden and the fact that having children makes them undesirable employees.
Women in the Russian military today
Outside of the military, too, an order from Vladimir Putin currently prohibits women from more than 450 professions across a number of industries—the fear being that overly strenuous activity might interfere with one’s ability to bear children. Though the Labor Ministry is reportedly working to reduce this number to 100 by 2021, restricted jobs will still include mining, construction, metalwork, firefighting, or jobs that involve heavy-lifting, diving, handling hazardous chemicals, welding, or aircraft repair. Law enforcement officers do not consider domestic violence against charged women as a significant circumstance relevant to the criminal case of the murder or causing bodily injuries to their partners or other male relatives. You can learn how to date and even get into a romantic relationship with a Russian woman from abroad and create a new family. There is an extensive number of sites where you can not only look for your future partner, you can also maintain constant and instant correspondence. Unfortunately, very often there misunderstanding can occur, which sometimes cannot be avoided because of language and cultural differences.
Category:Lists of Russian women
The evolution of Russian feminism over the past thirty years and the transformation of feminism into nonfeminism and postfeminism are as interesting as the deeper historical roots of today’s agenda. In the Russian case, it is also vital to look beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg and engage the wide variety of regional experiences and perspectives on https://russiansbride.com/ women’s issues from across the country. The Kennan Institute’s conference included participants from Ivanovo, Makhachkala, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Smolensk, Tomsk, and Tver, but wider geographic representation would enrich the conversation. Furthermore, as one participant noted, it might also be helpful to learn from the work of Holocaust studies and supplement the picture with the voices of direct participants and witnesses, such as clients of crisis centers or former inmates who became activists. There are multiple centers across Russia that offer assistance to victims of gender-based violence, and there are projects, like Nasiliu.net, that focus on educating the public and spreading the word to prevent violence.
In Russia, civil society may have “a woman’s face” and the authorities may have “a man’s face,” but protecting women is a job for everyone, and ensuring numerical gender equality does not immediately resolve the human rights violations. Because of time constraints, the conference discussions had to omit a variety of problems existing within feminism and activism, but did touch on the complicated relationship between the two. It is no secret that despite a recent resurgence of interest in feminism, the word itself has negative connotations in Russia, and female activists often shy away from that label, even if their practical work reflects feminist ideas. Still, as many of the conference participants emphasized, the key to success lies in solidarity, including solidarity across gender divides and ideological lines. One can argue that it is time for female activists to embrace feminism, for men to become true allies in pursuit of women’s rights, and for feminists to join the fight for wider social change. This article concerns the analysis of court practices for criminal cases relating to female victims of domestic violence who have been charged with murder or intentional infliction of grievous bodily injuries of their partners.
While the pursuit of women’s rights should not be reduced to a fight against specific government policies and legislative initiatives, Russia offers an interesting case for exploring the motivations and strategies of activism and social change in an authoritarian regime. In January 2017, the lower house of the Russian legislature decriminalized first time domestic violence. This applies to first offenses which do not cause serious injury, decreasing from a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment to a maximum of fifteen days in police custody. It became an administrative offense, with the penalty for first offenses falling under the Administrative Code, these usually being fines or suspended sentences if the accused is a family member, which constitutes the vast majority of domestic violence cases.
In the few cases where women have served as pilots or in other restricted roles, they have had to petition the government for special permission, even sending hand-written notes to Shoygu. At the same time, it seems these women are disproportionately highlighted in Russian media, inflating the perception that female representation is robust and unrestricted. Fears of gender-based violence may also play a role, as reports of rape and sexual assault even against men in the Russian military are common. An extreme practice of violence, bullying, and hazing, known as dedovshchina is acknowledged as a severe issue in the Russian military.
He also expressed his intent to move away from the draft by professionalizing Russia’s forces. A professional force made of volunteer contractors is seen as preferable to conscription in that it retains talent longer; with Russia’s present 12 month draft terms, conscripts only have about 6-9 months of useful service after completing training. According to official statistics, currently, about 405,000 of roughly 960,000 active duty personnel are kontraktniki, with a stated goal of increasing this number to nearly 500,000 by 2027. Looking farther out, some predict that Russia will undergo a population dip starting around 2033, which may also influence decisionmakers to further integrate the Armed Forces. However, the problem may not be as simple as “Russian women do not want to serve.” In fact, Shoygu noted that competition for military universities is even higher for women than for men, with 27 women applying for every seat. In many cases, women are turned away from enlistment for seeking restricted roles.