Former Duma candidates Marina Litvinovich, Alyona Popova and Oksana Pushkina are launching a project to help women get elected to positions of power […]
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… Americans are still more inclined to accept divorce than Russians are. Only 36 percent of Russians consider it morally acceptable […]
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One in seven acknowledged drinking more, one in 14 smoking, and slightly more than one in four overeating. Seventeen percent said … lockdown … led to conflicts among family members […]
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“Novaya Gazeta has blazed a trail by instituting a sexual harassment policy after taking internal accusations of misconduct seriously. Some independent outlets are following suit.” “As her shift at Russia’s investigative Novaya Gazeta newspaper was coming to an end on a late Monday afternoon last January, Elizaveta Kirpanova stopped by a senior reporter’s office to catch up. Kirpanova, a 23-year-old […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nov. 19, 2019) The Russian government doesn’t see domestic violence as a “serious problem” and believes that its scale is exaggerated, the country’s Justice Ministry said in an official response to Europe’s human rights court obtained by the Kommersant business daily. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this summer had asked Russia to respond […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 24, 2019) The average woman in Russia gets married eight years later than she did earlier this decade, according to official data. Marriage rates in Russia hit their lowest point since 2000 last year, according to Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) data, and researchers don’t expect rates to begin rising again until the mid-2020s. Most […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 13, 2019) Nearly one-third of Russia’s population has come face-to-face with domestic violence in their own families or among acquaintances, according to an independent survey published Friday. Russia decriminalized certain forms of domestic violence in 2017, a decision that top lawmakers have said was a mistake two years later. Activists say the absence of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 31, 2019) Russia could make domestic violence a crime two years after lawmakers decriminalized some forms of domestic abuse, a top senator has said after a ruling by Europe’s top human rights court put a spotlight on the issue. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) this month ruled for the first time that […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 12, 2019) A Russian police officer has been convicted of negligence after telling a domestic violence victim to “come back when you’re dead” minutes before she was murdered. Police inspector Natalya Bashkatova received a domestic abuse call in the city of Oryol in late 2016 but refused to investigate the victim’s claims, telling her, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 4, 2019) Women in Russia will be allowed to work as truck drivers and serve in the navy under new rules taking effect in 2021, the RBC news website reported Thursday. The Russian government bans women from holding 456 jobs in 38 industries that entail physically strenuous tasks or harmful working conditions. The restrictions […]
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In Ukraine and Russia, civil society and professional associations are helping women experts to raise their profile in the public arena. (opendemocracy.net – Olena Strelnyk – May 13, 2019 – opendemocracy.net/en/odr/female-experts-in-russia-and-ukraine-en/) Olena Strelnyk is a writer and researcher on gender issues. She is a doctor of sociology, and lives and works in Ukraine. “A 32-year-old blonde woman is now acting […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 3, 2018) Russia’s top human rights official has called the country’s 2017 decision to adopt a law that decriminalizes domestic abuse “a mistake.” In 2017, Vladimir Putin signed a law that scrapped prison sentences for first-time abusers whose beatings result in “minor harm,” such as small abrasions, bruises and superficial wounds. Since the law […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – ANASTASIA MANUILOVA – October 30, 2018) Think back to the most high-profile human rights cases in Russia in recent years – Oleg Sentsov, Ildar Dadin, Oyub Titiyev – and they almost always concern men. Away from the public eye, however, it is usually women who are working to defend and free them. Although women are […]
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(Kremlin.ru – September 20, 2018 – http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/58598) Vladimir Putin attended the Second Eurasian Women’s Forum and addressed its plenary session. The Second Eurasian Women’s Forum is taking place between September 19 and 21 at major convention centres and cultural venues in the historical centre of St Petersburg. The Tavrichesky Palace and the Parliamentary Centre serve as the main venue for […]
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(Article ©2018 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Carl Schreck – Aug. 29, 2018 – also appeared at https://www.rferl.org/a/ladies-man-putin-cites-caring-attitude-in-pension-reform-concession/29460024.html) Russian President Vladimir Putin reserved the weightiest of his cautious concessions on a controversial pension-reform plan for Russian women, who outnumber their male counterparts by 10 million and live — and vote — considerably longer. Citing what he called […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, May 17, 2018) Many assert that Russian society is both patriarchal and traditional as if this is something self-evident, Dimitry Savvin says; but in fact, Russian society is neither. Rather, it is something that, while externally similar to traditional and patriarchal society, in fact is the direct opposite. That is because, the […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, May 9, 2018) Vladimir Putin’s new May decrees are no more realistic or realizable than the 2012 ones that even he has acknowledged have remained largely unfulfilled, Yevgeny Gontmakher says. Instead, they are slogans about the future like those the Soviet government trotted out on holidays and that no one in the […]
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“Women in Russia are entering STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields at a higher rate than many of their Western counterparts, but there are still far less Russian women that men in the majority of these fields. … While interest in STEM drops precipitously at an early age in most other countries, often due to gender stereotypes, Russian girls […]
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“Харассмент: harassment … How is it that I’ve never written about домогательство? This word and issue – what is usually called harassment in English – have come up plenty of times in the past. But this week the subject came up, stayed up and is screaming for attention. …”
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“An influential Russian parliament member accused of sexual harassment by several female journalists has issued an apology and asked for forgiveness. … allegations against [foreign affairs committee head] Leonid Slutsky by three journalists include groping and making demeaning comments. … demonstrators including … Sobchak held pickets outside the parliament demanding [his] resignation ….” Click here for: “Russian lawmaker accused of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 6, 2018) [https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=236&uid=116735] As many as 82 percent of surveyed Russians say they are in favor of gender equality within the family, according to a state-run poll published Tuesday. Despite high rates of divorce and abortion, Russia has positioned itself as a country of conservative family values against modern liberal trends. Russia was among […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, January 31, 2018) Olga Khlynova and Yevgeny Furman, two doctors who are also candidate members of the Academy of Sciences, say that the average Russian today is an overweight 37-year-old married woman with children who smokes and drinks and suffers from migra[i]nes and depression. Their observations came during a lecture in Perm […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anastasia Manuilova – November 24, 2017) For Svetlana, a 35-year-old mother of three from Moscow, domestic violence is a family affair. Her ex-husband repeatedly threatened to take their son away and beat her mother. Last spring, it was Svetlana’s turn. “He cornered me in our flat in Moscow for several hours and beat me,” she […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 2, 2017) Russia has closed the gender divide between men and women across health and life expectancy for the first time in over a decade, but women remain alienated from politics, according to a new report on global gender inequality. The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2017 Global Gender Gap Report analyzes gender parity based […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Francesca Visser – September 20, 2017) In Soviet propaganda posters, women feature alongside men as powerful and resolute workers. Forward-looking and muscular, they are portrayed as heroines of the proletariat. It was women workers who in February 1917 started a protest that would evolve into the Russian Revolution. Today, Russia’s labor legislation is among the […]
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If you’re part of the #technology industry in the United States, then you’ll no doubt agree it’s a man’s world. TechCrunch reported … on the ‘pipeline problem’ … 18 percent of undergraduate computer science degrees and 26 percent of computing jobs are … held by #women. … [and] five percent of leadership positions in the technology industry …. the share of women in […]
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This year’s International Women’s Day was marked by feminist protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Experts note that the idea of gender equality remains unpopular in Russia. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – OLEG YEGOROV, RBTH – March 10, 2017) “March 8 is the day of women’s solidarity in their fight against gender inequality, not the day of spring, […]
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Dozens of crisis centers operate in Russia to help women caught up in desperate situations and left without help from their families. Some of them have nowhere to live, while others are trying to get away from their alcoholic, wife-beating husbands. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – OLEG SKRIPNIK, SPECIAL TO RBTH – July 14, 2016) There are three […]
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If you really want to unravel the mystery that is a Russian woman, you should probably skip this survival guide entirely and read some Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Still, since Russian authors were never known for their brevity, sending you off to a library before your first date with Natasha or Tatiana or Olga would simply be inhumane on our part. […]
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In theory, Chechnya – though overwhelmingly Muslim – is an integral part of the secular Russian Federation, governed by the same laws as Moscow. In practice, however, this North Caucasus republic of 1.4 million people, ravaged by two wars of secession, lives under very different rules. Under strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel who has become a fervent ally of […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW, April 17, 2016) Svetlana Medvedeva cannot rise to the top of her chosen profession for a very simple reason — she is a woman. The ambition of the 30-year-old mother of two is to earn a much better wage as the captain of a boat on the Volga River, which runs through […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Natalya Golitsyna – February 19, 2016) One of Ramzan Kadyrov’s staunchest critics says the Chechen leader remains one of the most powerful men in Russia despite mounting criticism over his ruthless tactics. According to Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled head of the Chechen separatist government, Kadyrov has accumulated so much clout that Russian President Vladimir Putin himself […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – December 11, 2015) Russia remains a conservative country where traditional gender paradigms dominate. Rather than being admired for its progressive gender dynamics, Western society is seen as degenerate and ultimately doomed. As Russia has isolated itself from the West politically and economically, traditional values have been heralded as a hallmark of Russian […]
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Leading businesswomen tell RBTH that the keys to success for female managers in Russia are being client-oriented, persistent and experienced. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – ALEXEI LOSSAN, RBTH – December 8, 2015) When it comes to Russia’s economy, experts believe that women are mostly active in consumer-oriented sectors. “A lot depends on the sector in which the company […]
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Despite large number of female managers in Russia, experts caution that women are mostly active in small businesses. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – ALEXEI LOSSAN, RBTH – December 7, 2015) While Russia is believed to have the largest proportion of women in senior managerial positions in the world, women are mostly active in small businesses. In the medium […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Vasily Kolotilov – October 21, 2015) Russia has only one organization that exists specifically to help victims of sexual assault, and today, its fate hangs in the balance. The Sisters sexual assault recovery center in Moscow is eking out an existence, depending on modest donations and barely able to cover the rent and phone bill […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – August 28, 2015) When asked what the most important things to do before turning 30 are, most Russians chose getting married, giving birth and receiving an education, while things like starting a business or traveling the world were at the bottom of the list, a poll released Wednesday by an independent Russian […]
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As the Russian state continues its conservative turn, could this fringe sport push back against the country’s gender politics? (opendemocracy.net – Ulrike Ziemer – July 23, 2015) Dr Ulrike Ziemer is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Winchester. Her research focuses on gender inequalities and young people from ethnic minorities in Russia. Recent publications include a monograph Ethnic […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – May 6, 2015) Russia is one of the top 60 countries in the world in terms of conditions of motherhood, according to a ranking published earlier this week by international advocacy group Save the Children. Russia ranks 56th out of 179 countries in Save the Children’s 2015 Mothers’ Index Ranking, which is […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Obrazkova, RBTH – April 4, 2015) There is a prevalent idea in Russian society that men and women should behave according to some unwritten standards. However, it is the country’s women that are affected much more by discrimination. What kinds of problems does this create in daily life and how long is […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Ekaterina Loushnikova – March 25, 2015) Ekaterina Loushnikova is a radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov. There are currently 59,000 women in Russian penal establishments. For many of them prison is not so much a punishment, more a way of life. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, there are currently 671,700 Russians […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 5, 2014) While NATO on Thursday called on Russia to “end its illegal annexation of Crimea,” the organizers of a U.S. beauty pageant seem unfazed about the peninsula’s political status, and are planning to ship the country’s most beautiful married women to Sevastopol. Organizers of the Mrs. America beauty contest revealed Monday that they […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – September 4, 2014) Russian women place first in the world in terms of how much time they spend in front of a mirror, a study conducted by U.S. company Harris Interactive revealed. Fifty-seven percent of Russian women between the ages of 18 and 49 spend at least 45 minutes getting ready before leaving the house, […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – June 20, 2014) In Soviet times you knew when something was about to be fixed when the ladies with the white scarves on the heads turned up with their toolboxes and buckets. One of the real successes of communism was to elevate the role of women in the work place. It was one of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 19, 2014) The State Duma’s ethics committee will investigate Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky after the firebrand politician directed a particularly crude and offensive outburst at reporters on Friday. After being asked whether Russia should retaliate against the travel restrictions placed on Russian men by Ukraine, Zhirinovsky went on a foul-mouthed tirade and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Diana Bruk, special to RBTH – March 7, 2014) Russian women don’t see the point of feminism – and maybe they have a point. Diana Bruk is a Russian-American journalist based in New York. It would probably surprise no foreigner who has ever visited Russia that a 2004 Kinsey study described Russian society […]
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(Moscow News – moscownews.com – David Burghardt – March 7, 2014) A woman’s place is in the kitchen, according to a recent poll by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VTsIOM) published on Friday. According to the latest survey, 72 percent of Russians believe a woman should choose the home and family over her career. “When there’s a choice […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – November 11, 2013) Miss Venezuela, Maria Gabriela Isler, swept aside 85 contestants to give her country its seventh Miss Universe crown during the competition final in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Saturday night. Although Russia’s beauty queen failed to make it into the top 16, the event left Russian organizers and celebrities […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – November 7, 2013) Miss Universe pageant’s arrival in Moscow, the first time the contest has been hosted here in its 62-year history, brought out all the glitter and sequins that the 87 contestants could pack in their suitcases. Matching the contest’s galactic theme, the local organizers said that they plan to “impress […]
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