Russia to 1801

Russia to 1801

Introduction

Women's leadership and representation in post-Soviet states has declined dramatically since the Soviet period, even though women in these states have many of the characteristics associated with higher levels of women's leadership in other countries: almost 100% literacy rates, a large proportion having higher education, extremely high labor force participation, and, especially in Russia, high levels of urbanization. Adverse economic circumstances, in addition to a resurgence of traditional discourses about women's proper place in the private sphere, the regeneration of patriarchal religions, and a steep rise in corruption and violence, have all contributed to making the public sphere unfriendly to women leaders. Until basic attitudes about gender undergo transformation, society becomes more tolerant of women leaders, women have access to the resources that men do, and the public sphere becomes a safer place in which to operate, the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles is unlikely to change.

Discussion

The women's political party called the Women of Russia (WOR) was active in the early to mid-1990s. Women of Russia had its roots in the old Soviet women's committees and an organization of women naval veterans. It did surprisingly well in the 1993 Duma election, garnering millions of votes and overcoming the national 5% barrier for representation on the PR side and gaining two additional seats on the single member district side. Yet, WOR was never again able to overcome the 5% threshold, and support for WOR grew fainter over time. In fact, the emergence of WOR probably attested to the weakness of women's political organizing. WOR came about as a response to the failure of other parties to make women's issues priorities, and its failure in 1995 showed that its avowed commitment to gender equality was not enough to gain votes. In the 1990s, the political party most friendly ...