Women in Contemporary Russia: A Thematic Cluster Toward an Understanding of Gendered Agency in Contemporary Russia

被引:7
|
作者
Holmgren, Beth [1 ]
机构
[1] Duke Univ, Dept Slav & Eurasian Studies, Durham, NC 27706 USA
来源
SIGNS | 2013年 / 38卷 / 03期
关键词
D O I
10.1086/668517
中图分类号
C [社会科学总论];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ;
摘要
Assessments of Russian women's current social and political status must take into account the complicated legacy of Soviet women's "emancipation." Although the Soviet government enforced women's access to higher education and a broad array of professional opportunities, it never challenged traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, or the double burden tacitly assigned women. It did not invest in products and services that would have eased "women's work" as homemakers and caretakers, nor did it protect women from sexual harassment on the job. The transition years have bared, glorified, and globalized the patriarchal state that lay just beneath the socialist veneer of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the Putin government has repackaged that patriarchy as conventionally and commercially masculinist. Women do exercise some power as consumers and mothers; they seek other-than-material fulfillment in facilitating positions rather than face opprobrium as public leaders. Some are attempting to scout new forms of agency as managers and business entrepreneurs. Yet there is no straightforward upward ladder for women in work and no generally acceptable movement toward lobbying for women's rights. The women who wield the greatest sociopolitical influence in Russia today are media pundits, writers of serious literature, and journalists who combine writing with general social and political activism. In order to bridge the great divide in historical conditioning and contemporary circumstance that separates us from Russian women, we must work toward a better understanding of their complex forms of agency. © 2013 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
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页码:535 / 542
页数:8
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