Sexism in Russia

(Moscow, Russia) The issue of women's rights seems to have failed to achieve a position of prominence in Russia, twenty years after the official fall of communism. In fact, overt Russian sexism solidly endures.

According to gender studies scholar Elena Zdravomyslova, the capitalist boom has enabled some women to progress but Russian sexist attitudes are deep-rooted.

A recent television commercial (NSFW Video) for lingerie shows long-legged women dressed only in stiletto heels and underwear, one of hundreds of such images bombarding Russians every day.

Zdravomyslova says advertisements, television programs, and glossy magazines are "aggressively sexualizing" the common idea of women's roles in society, and reinforcing traditional attitudes.

It’s those entrenched attitudes that are helping perpetuate one of Russia’s darkest secrets: domestic violence that's so pervasive many see it as a normal part of everyday life, in a country where an old saying advises, "If he beats you, he loves you."

The government's own figures estimate 14,000 women die each year from domestic violence. That's the death of one woman at the hands of her husband or partner every hour. It's more than 10 times the number of deaths in the United States, which has twice Russia's population.

Larisa Ponarina of the Anna Center for Domestic Violence says it’s impossible to tell exactly how many victims of domestic violence there are because the authorities aren't interested in the issue. She says no accurate statistics are kept, in a country whose legal system doesn’t even provide restraining orders for victims of abuse.

"It's still a man's world,” she says. “There's no conviction at the top of society that women should be advanced, and of course that influences society as a whole."

I suggest it takes generations to change traditional culture.