Why women hate living in Russia

From the blog We Deserve The Same. A description of inequality for women in Russia in regards to employment and the gender wage gap.

The Issue

The Issue

The majority of advantages for a Russian woman tends to be given to men. They often enact laws, or even try to make "gestures", but don't provide any real changes. They increase the number of shelters out of pace with society, they create laws but do not enforce them, and provide little care to the ever decreasing female work force alongside the increasing gender wage gap. I'll speak about the shelters seperately, mind you, as today's post is all about discrimination in the law specifically in regards to employment.

- See more at: http://wedeservethesame.blogspot.ca/2013/08/why-women-hate-living-in-russia.html

Laws: No Enforcement

Laws: No Enforcement

Russia tends to have no concern to enact their laws when it comes to women. And I'll give a great

example for this that has happened very recently.

Historically, it has been very common for employers to discriminate against women through either what they ask during the interview stage, or what they actually request for in the employment advertisement. It is common place to ask specifically for a gender or age range in newspapers, as an example, such as "We are seeing a beautiful young women no older than 30". They can actually, up until recently, could request for this!

So what happened as a result? Various human rights agencies had attempted to criticize Russia for this, and tried to put pressure on them to put forward changes.

What did Russia do after? They enacted the new law in the middle of July this year (2013) that was to prevent this practice.

Did it work? No. Newspapers and publications still publish such advertisements for employers. Even the big ones. And, you know what? The excuse that it has been only a couple of weeks is a pointless one, as a couple of weeks is more than enough time for these publications to stop this practice especially considering news agencies would KNOW about these changes! So if anyone uses this as an excuse I call bullshit. There is no excuse. It is simply that people tolerate the practice no matter what law is in place.

- See more at: http://wedeservethesame.blogspot.ca/2013/08/why-women-hate-living-in-russia.html

Lower Employment for Women

Lower Employment for Women

Did you know that during the time of Soviet Russia that 80-90% of women held official employment? Well. Now that the USSR had fallen, that number has fallen significantly.

In 1991, employment for women fell dramatically to to 59%. It then fell to 58% in 1992, to 56% in 1993, then 54% in 1994. It kept falling since, but of course there was an increase in recent years mind you but it is still nowhere near the days of Soviet Russia. Men, on the other hand, have much better employment prospects and a significantly lower unemployment rate even today.

- See more at: http://wedeservethesame.blogspot.ca/2013/08/why-women-hate-living-in-russia.html

Why women hate living in Russia

Women Get Less

The above isn't all that women face with employment issues. Women usually get significantly less for the same job as men. Not only that, but they often get passed over for promotions when up against male counterparts. This goes against the very fact that women are, more often than not, better educated than men as there is a higher post-secondary education rate for women.

While there is a gender wage gap in western society still, it pales in comparison to Russia's where some recent estimations put it at around 35%-40%. This isn't acceptable at all!

- See more at: http://wedeservethesame.blogspot.ca/2013/08/why-women-hate-living-in-russia.html

Women Hate Living In Russia

Women Hate Living In Russia

Yes, there was an actual statistic collected on this very issue. Due to how women are treated in this

country, polls taken in 2011 had shown that a third of the nation's women wish that they were born as men. And it is not that they actually want to be men, but it is that they are tired of the discrimination and treatment that they receive simply because of the gender that they were born as.

It is difficult being a woman there, especially when politics is so dominated by men. It makes it difficult to provide a voice for women. Did you know that the Duma (the lower house in government) only has around 9% of it filled with women? And not many of them have ministerial positions either. As for the federation council (the upper house), it gets even worse at 3% of seats provided to women.

I haven't even included a lot of other serious issues for women in Russia. Like how they get discriminated against with their job when they get pregnant or have children. Many lose their job or have pay reductions after this happens!

I feel for all of the women there. And truly hope for change to happen. But the government needs to start enforcing the number of laws that they put into place. Not just pretend that they care. Act! Do something! Help these women!

- See more at: http://wedeservethesame.blogspot.ca/2013/08/why-women-hate-living-in-russia.html