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Not many women in Russia are feminists - they tend to lean toward patriarchal views and way of life. But life itself compels them to reproach men. Sociologists talk about "gender asymmetry" with good reason. On average, women earn only 70 percent of men's salaries, and get 40 percent to 50 percent of their pensions. For a long time, they have been doomed to low-paid spheres - health care, education and culture. It is no surprise that women working two or three jobs at the same time has become a typically Russian phenomenon.
Women are more flexible than men on the jobs market; they are keener on getting new qualifications, and are better at dealing with challenges. In the estimate of the Romir Monitoring research holding, 43 percent of women are interested in their careers as compared with 54 percent of men. As a result, more than half of managers at different levels are women, concludes Irina Gorbulina, president of the Russian Business Academy. But Russian women are well aware of the "glass ceiling" - an artificial career limit on the grounds of sex, says Yelena Zelinskaya, vice president of Mediasoyuz.
She believes that women's participation in politics is "barely visible under the microscope." Valentina Matviyenko, the current governor of St. Petersburg, and Galina Karelova supervised the ministries in charge of social issues in the early 21st century. But they have been the most brilliant women in the government in recent times.
Russia ranks 80th in the world in the ratio of female members of the parliament's lower chamber (10 percent). Women occupy a meager 5 percent of seats in the upper chamber. There are no women among leaders of major political parties, except Irina Khakamada, who was one of the leaders of the Union of Right Forces, a liberal opposition party, and later on started her own party. There are only 20 percent women among the 126 members of the Public Chamber, which was set up as an institute of civil society.
Senior research associate of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Comparative Political Studies Svetlana Aivazova points out that women's negligible role in politics has absolutely clear consequences. For most women, politics is an alien domain; their political behavior is driven by inertia, and they tend to "live according to someone else's values, and to make their choices based on emotions rather than reason," she explains. This has led to a number of social problems, concludes Aivazova.
Alexandra Ochirova, chairwoman of the Russian Public Chamber on social development, agrees that without promoting women to positions of power, the government will not be able to cope with its national projects, the four key areas of social and economic development, which are designed to make major changes in healthcare, education, housing and agriculture.
As for non-government organizations established and run by women, there were hundreds of them at a national level in the late 1990s. Three-fifths of such NGOs defend the rights of women, soldiers and children. The second place belongs to the associations that focus on education for women, ensuring they have the training and qualifications to diminish discrimination in the jobs market. Educational, charity and business organizations come next. But no matter how many public and government agencies deal with discrimination against women, the gender asymmetry does not go away.
But equal rights are increasingly gaining a foothold in the family. More often than not, spouses share household chores together, which is hardly a surprise considering that many women make more money than their husbands. The growing education level also contributes to promoting democracy in the family. Fifty-eight percent of all university students are girls. Although young people tend to be career-minded and believe it is best to get married at 27-29 (rather than 22-24 as they used to), a mere 8 percent of young women have said that are not planning to have children after marriage.
Valentina Tereshkova was the world's first female cosmonaut; revolutionary and feminist Alexandra Kollontai was the first female ambassador; Russian women have reached the acme of perfection in poetry and science (there are 40 women among members of the Russian Academy of Sciences today). But they have one more major achievement to their credit - incredible patience with which they carry the burden of gender imbalance.
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