Feminism in Russia

"Kitchen and fashion – that's NOT freedom": Feminist graffiti in St. Petersburg, 2006

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Feminism in Russia originated in the 18th century, owing to the unique political and cultural landscape of the Russian Empire, notable aristocratic women, and the Orthodox Church's influence on the women's role in social reform and charity. Throughout the 19th century, the idea of feminism remained closely tied to the formation of secular philanthropic organizations, political reform, and the shifting social norms of industrialization alongside the entry of women into the public sphere. In the 20th century, Russian feminists expanded on philanthropic works and civil reform to become more directly involved in the political landscape of the newly formed Duma, Provisional Government, and its successor state, the Soviet Union, through organizing and direct action. After the February Revolution of 1917, feminist lobbying gained suffrage and general equality for women in society; however, in the 1960s and 1970s, women continued to experience discrimination in certain career paths (including politics), as well as income inequality and a greater burden of household work. In spite of this, the concern with feminism varied depending on demographics and economic status.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, feminist circles arose among the intelligentsia, though the term continues to carry negative connotations among contemporary Russians. In the 21st century, some Russian feminists, such as the punk-rock band Pussy Riot, have again aligned themselves with anti-government movements, as in the 2012 demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin, which led to a lawyer representing the Russian Orthodox Church calling feminism a "mortal sin".

Origins

18th century

Russian feminism is an outgrowth of a unique Russian familial structure, distinctive legal, economic, and social conditions in the Russian Empire, and the emphasis of civic participation and charity in the Orthodox Church. While the legal status of women in the Russian Empire effectively placed them under the unrestricted authority of husbands, fathers, and other male relatives, there were circumstances written into the legal code, in existence since medieval times, in which women could inherit, buy, sell, transfer, and own property, regardless of marital status; a privilege not enjoyed by their Western counterparts in America, France, and Britain. While limited in their participation in the public/political sphere by the patriarchal and autocratic Tsarist government, women still had the opportunity, albeit limited to those of aristocratic and wealthy households, to found and support private charitable movements with their fortunes. It was even mentioned in the writings of a French noblewoman that this unique advantage allowed Russian women to surpass their Western counterparts in charity. This advantage allowed the women to expand their influence into civil reform and political influence through seemingly innocuous charitable causes, as many charitable organizations came to rely heavily on these donations. The earliest women's charities founded in this period relied heavily on the patronage of the Imperial Family, most notably the German princesses Catherine II and her daughter-in-law Maria Feodorovna. While Catherine's charities founded during her reign were notable, Maria Feodorovna, who inherited the role of administrating and expanding them after Catherine's death in 1796, energetically refocused charitable efforts by the Imperial family towards the lower classes, emphasizing women and children.

19th century

Throughout the 19th century, women's role in Russian civil society began to expand greatly in the founding of numerous charitable organizations in the early half of the 19th century that would be founded by other noblewomen of influence following in Feodorovna's example. The Woman's Patriotic Society established in 1812 in response to the plethora of victims from Napoleon's aggression; successive wives of Moscow's governor-generals founded their own charities as well to improve the outcomes for women and impoverished children, filling in a gap left by the absence of a state welfare system that most Western European states were beginning to experiment with and adopt. The role of women in upholding the political stability of the Russian society through their charities became so crucial that Alexander II approved a special "Ladies' Badge" for important contributions made through the Imperial Philanthropic Society, an honor that had traditionally been reserved for major male donors. These organizations not only served as an important vehicle for women's visibility in the public and social sphere, although over time they expanded to incorporate women of varying backgrounds and economic classes; these organizations created a class of experienced female administrators who had engaged for the first time in full-time work outside the home in the early 19th century. It is estimated based on a 1901 survey presented at the 1908 Russian All-Women's Congress that of the 4,000 charitable societies, 300 of them were run by women or directly for the benefit of women.

The Revolution and Soviet era

Pre-Revolution

Between 1907 and 1917, the League for Women's Equal Rights was a prominent feminist organization in Russia. Like the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society, it was focused on education and social welfare, but it also pushed for equal rights for women, including suffrage, equal inheritance, and an end to passport restrictions. The 1917 Revolution, catalyzed in part by women workers' demonstrations, generated a surge of membership in the organization. In the same year, because of the society's continued lobbying, the Soviet Union expanded the universal suffrage that had already been present in the Former Grand Duchy of Finland under the Tsar to the Russian people at large.

Stamp depicting the iconic Soviet statue that symbolized union of a male worker and a kolkhoz woman, which represented the ideal of equality under Communism.

Feminism in Soviet society

Vladimir Lenin, who led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution, recognized the importance of women's equality in the Soviet Union (USSR) they established. "To effect [woman's] emancipation and make her the equal of man," he wrote in 1919, two years after the Revolution, following the Marxist theories that underlaid Soviet communism, "it is necessary to be socialized and for women to participate in common productive labor. Then woman will be the equal of man."

In practice, Russian women saw massive gains in their rights under Communism. Women's suffrage was granted. Abortion was legalized in 1920, making the Soviet Union the first country to do so; however, it was banned again between 1936 and 1955. In 1922, marital rape was made illegal in the Soviet Union. Generous maternity leave was legally required, and a national network of child-care centers was established. The country's first constitution recognized the equal rights of women.

Though the prevailing Soviet ideology stressed total gender equality, and many Soviet women held jobs and advanced degrees, they did not participate in core political roles and institutions. Above the middle levels, political and economic leaders were overwhelmingly male. While propaganda claimed, accurately, that more women sat in the Supreme Soviet than in most democratic countries' legislative bodies combined, only two women, Yekaterina Furtseva and (in its last year of existence) Galina Semyonova, were ever members of the party's Politburo, arguably the most important component of the country's government.

By the 1970s, while women's liberation was a mainstream term in American public discourse, no comparable movement existed in the Soviet Union, despite gender-based income inequality and a rate of additional work in the household greater than that experienced by American women. There were also double standards in social norms and expectations. "A man can fool around with other women, drink, even be lackadaisical toward his job, and this is generally forgiven," wrote Hedrick Smith, former Russian correspondent for The New York Times, but "if a woman does the same things, she is criticized for taking a light-hearted approach toward her marriage and her work." In an open letter to the country's leadership shortly before he was expelled from it in 1974, the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn talked about an alleged heavy burden placed on women to do the menial work in Soviet society: "How can one fail to feel shame and compassion at the sight of our women carrying heavy barrows of stones for paving the street?"

Smith wrote that many women he talked to complained that their emancipation had in fact been exploitation, since economic circumstances effectively compelled them to work while they retained their domestic responsibilities at home, and they were often tired; and that in contrast to Western women, Soviet women regularly saw their idea of liberation as working less and having more opportunity to stay at home. He recounted a popular joke:

Under capitalism, women are not liberated because they have no opportunity to work. They have to stay at home, go shopping, do the cooking, keep house and take care of the children. But under socialism, women are liberated. They have the opportunity to work all day and then go home, go shopping, do the cooking, keep house and take care of the children.

In addition, as Soviet feminist Ekaterina Alexandrova wrote in her article "Why Soviet Women Want to Get Married."

"...Soviet women work at the most varied jobs, and many of them are well educated, have a profession, and are financially independent of men. And yet, in this very society among these very women, a patriarchal social order and its psychology thrive."

Sexist attitudes still prevailed across Soviet society. Men in the leadership often did not take women or their ideas seriously, and excluded them from many discussions. Domestic violence and sexual harassment continued to exist, although to a much lesser extent than in the West. Yet, sociological studies at the time found that Soviet women had varied attitudes toward the progress made towards equality since the founding of the Soviet Union.

Glasnost and post-Soviet Russia

In the mid-1980s Mikhail Gorbachev instituted glasnost, allowing greater freedom of speech and organization than ever before in the USSR. This openness generated a burst in women’s political action, academic research, and artistic and business ventures. Additionally, women were aware that the new government would offer little assistance with their economic and social struggles. Citizens of the Soviet Union could file complaints and receive redress through the Communist Party, but the post-Soviet government had not developed systems of state recourse. Women began to form their own networks of resource sharing and emotional support, which sometimes developed into grassroots organizations.

During glasnost and after the fall of the Soviet Union, feminist circles began to emerge among intelligentsia women in major cultural centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the 1990s, Russian women were hesitant to use the term "feminist" to describe themselves, because they believed it to have negative connotations throughout Russian history, and especially after the Revolution, when it was equated with the "proletariat" woman who only cares for her career, not her family. Russian women’s activism in the 1990s was not explicitly feminist; women attempted to improve their financial and social conditions through any practical means. From this struggle emerged female communities which empowered many women to assert themselves in their pursuit of work, equitable treatment and political voice.

Political and economic transformation in post-Soviet Russia caused deep economic decline in the 1990s and particular financial struggles for women. Although many held jobs, women were also expected to be homemakers. Soviet working women often received extensive employment benefits, such as long child-care leaves, which pushed women into the role of housewife. In the 1990s domestic work grew increasingly demanding as acquiring goods became more time-consuming in the restructured economy. Women’s benefits also made them less attractive employees, and during privatization many companies fired women. While 90% of women were in the labor market in the 1980s, by 1991 women made up 70–80% of unemployed Russians. Those jobs available to women in the 1990s were often in low-wage sectors, and many job descriptions specified that only young, attractive women need apply. Employed women often received significantly less pay than men doing the same work.

21st century

Members of Pussy Riot, a feminist Russian punk rock band

In 2003, 43 percent of local administrators in St. Petersburg were women.

In 2012, the feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot performed publicity stunts to show their opposition to Vladimir Putin, and have faced criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church and the Putin administration. Three members of the group were arrested in March 2012 after performing a "punk-prayer" against Putin in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. During their trial for hooliganism, they talked about being feminists and stated that this was not incompatible with Russian Orthodoxy. However, Larisa Pavlova, the lawyer representing the Church, insisted this view "does not correspond with reality" and called feminism a "mortal sin."

See also

• Gender roles in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe

References

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• Bisha, Robin (2002). Russian Women, 1698–1917: Experience and Expression, an Anthology of Sources. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34084-9. Search this book on
• Chapman, Jenny (1993). Politics, Feminism, and the Reformation of Gender. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-01698-8. Search this book on
• Clements, Barbara Evans (2012). A History of Women in Russia: From Earliest Times to the Present. Search this book on
• Elder, Miriam (2 February 2012). "Feminist punk band Pussy Riot take revolt to the Kremlin". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
• Elder, Miriam (7 August 2012). "Pussy Riot trial: prosecutors call for three-year jail term". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
• Gottlieb, Vera (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Chekhov. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-58917-8. Search this book on
• Glickman, Rose L. (1 January 1984). Russian Factory Women: Workplace and Society, 1880–1914. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05736-4. Search this book on
• Mandelker, Amy (1993). Framing Anna Karenina: Tolstoy, the Woman Question, and the Victorian Novel. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-0613-3. Search this book on
• Noonan, Norma C.; Nechemias, Carol (2001). Encyclopedia of Russian Women's Movements. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-30438-5. Search this book on
• Ofer, Gur; Vinokur, Aaron (1992). The Soviet Household under the Old Regime: Economic Conditions and Behaviour in the 1970. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-38398-1. Search this book on
• Posadskaya, Anastasia (1994). Women in Russia: A New Era in Russian Feminism. Verso. ISBN 978-0-86091-657-4. Search this book on
• Pushkareva, Natalia Lʹvovna; Levin, Eve (1997). Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-1-56324-798-9. Search this book on
• Ruthchild, Rochelle Goldberg (11 July 2010). Equality & Revolution: Women's Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905–1917. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-6066-9. Search this book on
• Salmenniemi, Suvi (14 July 2008). Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-44112-4. Search this book on
• Saurer, Edith; Lanzinger, Margareth; Frysak, Elisabeth (2006). Women's Movements: Networks and Debates in Post-communist Countries in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. ISBN 978-3-412-32205-2. Search this book on
• Smith, Hedrick (1977). The Russians (original paperback ed.). Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-345-25521-1. Search this book on
• Smith, Hedrick (1991). The New Russians. Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-41294-6. Search this book on
• Soldak, Katya (14 June 2012). "Pussy Riot, Putin, The Church, and Human Rights". Forbes. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
• Tavernise, Sabrina (9 March 2003). "Women Redefine Their Roles in New Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
• Herszenhorn, David M. (8 August 2012). "In Russia, Madonna Defends a Band's Anti-Putin Stunt". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
• Vowles, Judith (11 March 1999). Russia Through Women's Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06754-5. Search this book on

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