In 2017, one in three Russians „do not https://fracturedstate.net/asian-women/russian-women/ 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. Furthermore, only 33% of respondents would welcome a female president. Sociological surveys show that sexual harassment and violence against women increased at all levels of society in the 1990s.
Women earn on average 30% less than a man, one of the largest wage gaps among high-income countries. Even in professions where the wage gap is the smallest, like in the education sector, there is a 20% difference in average salary. Women also do a significant amount of unpaid work– estimates have determined that the loss to the annual budget due to gender segregation is 40-50% in Russia. Were Russia to offer equal resources in agriculture to all genders, it could raise food production by 30%. Higher poverty rates for women affect not only women but the children they raise. Impoverished women often cannot afford higher education for their children, which limits the children’s upwards economic mobility. Therefore, the cycle of poverty is perpetuated because of systemic gender discrimination putting mothers in positions where they cannot give their children better lives.
Domestic violence as a whole– which disproportionately victimizes women– is a serious threat to women’s rights in Russia. In January 2017, Russia decriminalized domestic violence that does not cause serious injury– meaning broken bones or a concussion– for first-time offenders.
This precious thing is a „mysterious Russian soul“ (according to the Russian classical writers, zagádočnaя rýsskaя dušá), family values, personality traits, and a very traditional outlook on life. Female protesters in Russia are particularly vulnerable to the threat of sexual violence, said OVD-Info lawyer Daria Korolenko. The group documented about 200 cases of women threatened with sexual violence, deprived of food or sleep or subjected to other mistreatment while detained over protests between Sept. 21 and 26. Ella Rossman, a researcher at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, attributed the rise in the share of women at protests to fears of some men of conscription and to a growing Russian feminist movement.
I don’t remember the Cuban missile crisis, but a Russian friend told me how her kindergarten was evacuated to the steppe from the military town where they built missiles and they were told that they would be killed by the Americans that night. An American friend told me about living through a false nuclear alarm. For the last few weeks I have felt that I’m watching a horror film in which Russia and America accuse each other and discuss the possible consequences of conflict. Even though it is clear that there will be nothing left after a nuclear war, and there will be no winners.
There is a widespread perception of inequality as a norm in Russia, so much so that women in the workforce may not even notice discrimination. Even conservative projections from border control agencies paint a picture of a nation in flight. During the two weeks following Putin’s mobilization announcement, 119,000 Russians entered the EU and an independent review of Russia’s Federal Customs Service data for the same period showed 200,000 going to Kazakhstan and another 49,000 entering Georgia.
In the harsh climate of the Russian steppe, and a life of labor from an early age, perhaps half of all children would live to adulthood. “The birth of her first child, preferably a son, established her position in her husband’s household. As she continued to bear sons, her status further improved.” Russian peasant families needed help in the fields and to manage the household; not being able to hire anyone for these tasks, children were the only way to get the help they needed. Having a son ensured that the family name would continue as well as any property they might own, though as Petrine reforms came into effect, it began to be equally profitable to have a girl.
And, more than 700,000 people have since fled the country to avoid such a fate, according to Forbes Russia. This estimate cannot be independently verified, and has been disputed by the Kremlin.
In this case, it only remains to rely upon women from big cities where they can speak English or other foreign languages much frequently. At the same time, although they are generally small in scale, one should not underestimate their ripple effect. Days after Putin’s mobilization announcement, Russians were Googling “how to break an arm at home” in record numbers. One of the women I spoke to told me about a colleague who really worried for her brother—until one day he actually accidentally fell and broke his collarbone. “Now my colleague doesn’t have to worry when she reads the mobilization news,” she said. The overnight disappearing act has resulted in several strange situations.