Age, Number of Children and Activity of Women in Russian Politics

Abstract

The article reflects the specifity of women’s participation in the Russian political process for more than a century — from the creators of the first women’s political organizations, the Women’s Mutual Charitable Society and the Women’s Progressive Party, to modern leaders of the ruling party, systemic and non-systemic opposition. A list of pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet women politicians, who were quite famous during the years of their public activity and were often mentioned in the media, has been compiled. It comprises more than fifty prominent public activists who held important government posts or were nominated by public opinion, including not only among those loyal to the authorities, but also dissidents in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Their age, marital status, presence or absence of children are analyzed. The article attempts to identify the correlation between such parameters as gender, age, and time of entry into an active political life; to correlate these inputs with the number of children; and to substantiate the differences in the social expectations of the electorate of men and women in the political process. The hypothesis that married men with children dominate in the Russian politics has been confirmed. Women politicians in Russia are most often childless or have few children. Unlike foreign participants in the electoral process, Russians’ readiness to see women among representatives of the political elite does not grow every year but is constantly declining — and regardless of whether these women politicians become mothers or remain childless.

Keywords:

gender, women politicians, Russia in the 20th century, marital status, age, children, political process