Russian Women Are Leading the Underground Protest Against Putin’s War Europe

Men’s family roles are rewarded publicly and privately, while women are effectively penalized through the doubled workload at home and in a career, in addition to facing employment discrimination and limited career prospects. The trend toward retraditionalization and remasculinization has affected women’s employment options, but public opinion polls offer grounds for cautious optimism that Russian society has not supported a complete return to traditionalism in the workforce.

• 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.

It also needs feminists as allies in pursuit of the social change agenda. In public talks aimed at dismantling stereotypes, feminist speakers often find that women themselves tend to shy away from using the word “feminism” and from conversations about discrimination. Domestic violence has moved to a prominent place on the public agenda, but now feminists tend to focus on this problem overlooking other social issues. Among other critiques, the discourse is noticeably heterocentric, even though the LGBTQ+ community faces similar issues related to abuse in relationships. In addition, the fight against the so-called “gay propaganda law” of 2013, which criminalizes “propagandizing nontraditional sexual relationships” to minors, thus effectively criminalizing the public promotion of LGBTQ+ rights in Russia, remains outside the feminist agenda. Some conference participants voiced the need for intersectionality, although another participant later objected, arguing that it dilutes the feminist agenda.

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 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.

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On the other hand, foreign men tend to respect their love from abroad more and that makes their wives happier. Moreover it’s always a great experience to build an intercultural family in which two people can interchange not only their personal experiences but also the heritage of their countries.

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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.

Adherence to the Chatham House Rule ensured a frank and uncensored conversation, and the Zoom chat and breakout rooms created an opportunity for less formal exchanges. There were 20 people there, all women with kids and not a single man! Lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic trapped many women at home with their abusers. Russia initially denied a spike in domestic violence, despite national domestic violence organizations reporting their inability to keep up with a steep increase in calls from victims. Women were fined for breaking quarantine in order to escape their abusers until May 2020, when the government finally declared domestic violence an emergency in which breaking quarantine was acceptable. In March 2020, Putin signed a bill increasing the severity of punishments for breaking quarantine, which include fines up to US$640 . If their actions caused others health issues or even death, those who break quarantine would receive a minimum of 5-7 extra years in prison and fines worth up to US$4,800.

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.

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 https://thegirlcanwrite.net/russian-women/ 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.