More and more feminists, especially young people, are concerned, just like Leda. According to them, the image of the ‘perfect Russian woman’ is becoming more and more conservative in Russia.
Maria Sagitova is head of social policy in St. Petersburg and is committed to helping women in need. She sees a traditional tendency in society, with women in the past ten valued mainly for her role as a mother: “We see that women are less and less economically independent, that paygap is on the job market. But also that there is less and less protection for women when it comes to sexual abuse or domestic violence. ”Those two crimes are very vaguely defined in the law in Russia.
14,000 women are abused every year
On average, a woman in Russia dies every 40 minutes from domestic violence – that’s about 14,000 women a year. And that number has increased in recent years. Domestic violence has officially ceased to be a crime in Russia for three years – even when bones are broken. The idea behind this relaxation of the law is that “the unity of the family” must be protected; fathers do not belong in jail.
According to Sagitova, this fits in with the conservative tendency that can be seen in Russian society, in which the family comes first and women are seen less and less as equal. “As long as women accept flowers on this day, but remain silent about what they really need – such as equal salaries and more government protection – that will remain a problem.”
Still, most Russian women think Women’s Day is just a beautiful holiday that has nothing to do with feminism or women’s struggle for equal rights. They see it as a great disrespect for a man not to buy flowers for them on this day. “We are not here in the West” say several people on the street. “This is Russia”.
–
