WOMEN AND POLITICS IN RUSSIA: WHY THEY WON'T GO                                              back to projects page
Why do women in Russia  do not want to go in for politics but prefer to lead a quiet family life? Is it a rule? What about you?

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    Lalaeva Dina
I think that a lot of Russian women don't want to be politicians and there are a lot of reasons to prove it.
First of all, politics is a dirty business and that's why they don't want to obtain further insight into it. When you're involved it's not very easy to escape.
Also I think that it is a stereotype that women should keep houses, bring up children and create comfort at home. Some men just don't want to allow women to earn more. They don't feel that they are breadwinners, but it's just self-pride(or: self-conceit) and nothing else. Men feel that they lose self-respect, when a woman holds a high post. Hence, it's very difficult for them to be taken down dictations, they think that a woman hurts their self-esteem. And that's why a lot of women face difficulties when they are among men, but it mustn't prevent them from climbing the ladder.
So, every woman should have the right to choose her own way in life and nobody can dictate her.		   Chernyshova
Actually, I don’t quite agree with this point of view. One thing is when women in Russia doom themselves to such quiet family life conscientiously, and another thing is that nowadays most women tend to take a valuable position at work and even in politics but they fail because of many reasons.
Today we may see a catastrophic position of women both in the family and society. Here can be mentioned inequality in the social positions of men and women, change for the worse of the position of women in all spheres of public life. Just because of this factor many women, aiming to possess some position at work or in politics, face many difficulties. For example, since recently all women have taken an opportunity to go in for business undertaking, but not all of them have succeeded in it. Mostly women are occupied in small businesses, and they are rarity in a big one, as they are excluded by men.
Women are also excluded from the process of making crucial decisions. See for yourself: in the system of government most women are at the positions, not supposing making crucial decisions and we can only find one or two women among real politicians. This means that politics has a male face. Such authority can’t take into consideration either women’s interests or their especial experience.
Finally, Russia will have to take a long way to gain the European level. Many foreign countries are surprised that most employers don’t hide their unwillingness to hire women, and it is women who are made redundant first place and are paid less than men. May be it is our women’s fault, our guilt, as we haven’t still learnt to defend our rights?
 
    Banatova Irina
Male dominance in almost every sphere of social life is historically conditioned. In early societies, women bore children, cared for the home, and helped to maintain the family. Men hunted, made war and gathered for councelling.
The reason why Russian women prefer housekeeping to leading the country is our mentality.
Russian women are makeing progress in their own way, without adopting a Western approach. During all the history of Russia women have always been helpers to men. It is reflected in our folklore: princess-frog and Vasilisa Premudraya helped their men, but stayed in shadow. Some people may think that Russian women are being oppressed in their rights , but, to my mind they just follow their nature. Russian women express themselves in poetry, art, social organizations. Nowadays they are taking advantage of opportunities in newly established firms, quickly climbing through the ranks to become managers, accountants, advertisers and public relation officials. They do what they are prone to. And they combine it with caring for their children and parents, because in our society people tend to live as one family.
Many women experience difficulties in combining their work and household duties, but it’s not the rule. In fact, such difficulties are more widespread in low-income families while well-to-do people pay for an elite kindergarten, hire nurses, servants and thus have more time for their self-expression.
If a woman has a desire to join a political party the obstacle is then mostly in the male’s attitude. No one can say that we have a female majority in the government,  in the current Duma women take only 8% of the total. Though, there has been some improvement in the positions occupied by women in the Duma's steering body and on its committees. The first deputy chair is a woman (Lyubov Sliska of Edinstvo), as is one of the deputy chairs (Irina Khakamada of the Union of Right-Wing Forces). Women deputies are spread fairly evenly across the party spectrum, with the exception of the totally male fraction of Zhirinovsky's LDPR.
In the government there’s a high ranking woman -Valentina Matvienko, vice premier for social matters. Among women's public associations, the most influential is the Union of Soldiers' Mothers that has achieved a high political profile in addressing problems related to the army and its operations in Chechnya.
There are two reasons why the idea of a women's political movement is unpopular among Russia's female population. One is that public consciousness still associates women in politics with failed personal lives and the other is that women are inclined to believe that a "female party" would be relegated to the margins of political life.
But in modern Russia there’s a trend in changing behavioral patterns: more women drive cars and more women become more active, socially and politically. So the glass ceiling trapping women from top-positions is a temporary obstacle.
As the economic and social situation in Russia continues to improve, the most important thing for women to have is not a strong feminist movement, but a widening range of opportunities and options. Society opens before women the possibility to build their lives as they want - as a politician, a businesswoman, a professional, or a housewife.
 
 

ALL OPINIONS ARE TAKEN FROM CLASS ESSAYS, 2003
Kasimovskaya Natalya
There are certain reasons why women in Russia don't want to be inside the political machine.
Firstly, many women in our country still consider that men should be breadwinners, and women don't want to interfere in this process, preferring to sit at home with their children and their household duties.
Secondly, though women are a very creative and active part of  Humanity, not able to sit on one place doing nothing, there is a strong conviction among them that in politics it's almost impossible for them to convince diehard men to change anything.
And thirdly, women in Russia, according to some recent poll, want to organize something that is closer to their nature, for example, beauty parlours, shops, etc.
So we see  only very strong women can be politicians and unfortunately their number isn't large.
 
 
Olya Lepilina
WOMEN & POLITICS.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH IT???
It goes without saying that this theme is an eternal one. Why do not women become politicians? What prevents them from this "rash" step? Why are only men considered to be the heads of states? It's a good topic for discussion.
First of all I'd like to note that our country is not so "poor" in women-politicians. Such persons as Matvienko, Novodvorskaya, Hakamada, Slizka, Burataeva, & others - their names are known to everyone. But still, of course I agree that it's not easy for a woman to be a politician .First of all it needs a great amount of strong physical force, patience & no doubt mental activity( & sometimes even over-activity).So, not every woman is eager to "exhaust " herself in this way. The second reason is family. A woman & children - are inseparable concepts .
Cooking, washing, bringing up children (& sometimes husbands), shopping & so on and so forth - it takes a lot of time. Is there a free minute left to think about politics??? To my mind in most cases the answer is:"no". But it doesn't mean that women are weaker than men , or that they are not so clever & other flat nonsense. May be the only right argument is the following: "A woman is born to be the household goddess". But that’s only on the one hand, & on the other hand women are just too busy today with more interesting things than politics. Just let it be men's primary right. Let them have it and eat it :)

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