[Marxism] (fwd) Present-day Russia needs a renewal of the feminist movement | Links

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By *Anna Ochkina, *translated from Russian for /Links International 
Journal of Socialist Renewal/ by *Renfrey Clarke*

The shift to market mechanisms did not relieve the problems of Russian 
women, but exacerbated them. Occupational and economic discrimination 
grew stronger with the problems with the economy, with the fall in the 
number of jobs that were well paid (or which even paid more than the 
subsistence minimum), and with increased competition between workers in 
the labour market. The sharp reduction in the financing of social 
welfare brought increases in the cost of health care and education at 
all levels, affecting women most of all. It also turned out that the 
years of occupational emancipation of women had not made men completely 
equal partners in marriage; instead, men had been freed of moral 
responsibility for the material and social wellbeing of their families.

In post-Soviet Russia, the poverty and disempowerment of state-sector 
workers has been mainly a problem of women. In the USSR education, 
health care, social services and culture had already been extensively 
feminised. The marked decline of earnings and job prestige in these 
sectors thus affected women above all. It is perfectly justified to talk 
of economic discrimination against women in Russia. Statistical and 
sociological data show that in Russia, poverty is mainly a problem of 
women. Meanwhile, in 40 per cent of Russian families women are the main 
or sole breadwinners.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/829

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