Svetlana Smetanina Why do women need equal rights with men?
Do women need to have equal rights with men? There are two different points of view to this problem in the modern-day society. Most likely, the Western kind of feminism, in its extreme forms, will never take roots in Russia. However, women will have to fight for their rights anyway. It goes about economic rights in the first place.If you call a common Russian woman a feminist, you will most likely offend her. Indeed, the majority of Russians share a negative attitude towards the fighters for women's rights. Many Russians think of feminists as aggressive women, who do not tolerate men for some reason and try to terrorize them. The "achievements" of Western feminism (the recent decision to ban the word "mademoiselle" in France, for example) do not inspire anyone in Russia.
Feminist movements have not taken roots in Russia. There were a number of them in the beginning of the 1990s. However, they can hardly be found in today's Russia. There is no culture medium for such ideas in the country.
Does it mean that Russian women are absolutely satisfied with the rights that they have?
"When you start speaking about the necessity of equal rights between men and women in the society today, you may also hear people saying: "What do women want today? They have all the rights anyway."" Svetlana Aivazova, a senior scientist with the Institute for Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
It turns out that Russian women lack a lot of things.
First and foremost, Russian women lack men, although this is not a secret at all. There are 10 million more women than men in the country. However, the predominance of the fair sex does not give women any advantages in other spheres of life - in the field of economy, for instance. The salaries of female employees are usually 30% lower than those paid to male employees on similar jobs. Needless to say that men take the majority of administrative positions in Russia.
The society wants women to look up to two role models, even though it is very hard to combine those models in real life. First off, it goes about the role of mother, who carries absolutely responsibility for family affairs and children. Secondly, women must be successful professionally.
However, these two requirements put up serious obstacles for the majority of women. Privately owned companies often try to get rid of expecting female employees to avoid extra spending when a woman goes on a maternity leave. In Russia, it was common practice during the financial crisis in 2008. Not so many women want to be simply housewives.
The state does not encourage women to sit at home either. Women make a half of labor staff in the country. If they are "relieved" of their work, many industries will simply stop existing. Many Russian women know one simple rule: "if a woman wants to be equal with men professionally, she needs to run faster."
Interestingly enough, gender policies are not a priority for any political parties and national development strategies in Russia. This issue is not on the agenda of anything at all. Most likely, this is because it is men who write programs and strategies. They tried to pass a gender equality law in Russia in 2003, but deputies (mostly men) only gave it the first reading. The bill raised the issue of quotas for women deputies in the Russian parliament. "Do you want 30% of men to move over for women deputies?" one of the parliamentarians sincerely wondered.
There is something degrading in gender quotas. Human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina said: "I know many men whom I could delegate the powers to speak in the parliament on my behalf, and I don't know many women, whom I could trust on that."
There are only 13% of women in Russian politics. It is impossible to believe that smart and professional women are very hard to find in Russia.
It is worthy of note that no politician can become successful in Russia if they fail to win the hearts and minds of the female part of the population. For example, 60% of all people, who took part in the presidential election in March, were women. The majority of women, who came to the polls, cast their votes for Putin. This is how the gender issue works in reality.
