March is Women’s History month!
Time when women all around the globe come together celebrate the achievements of our sistas in the past, remind everyone about gender inequality today and raise extra attention and actions towards advocacy of women’s rights.
Being raised and lived the majority of my life in Russia, I could say that sexism and misogyny is a very popular practice among lots of men there. The scariest part is that it’s so deeply embedded in culture and what we call “social norms” that lot’s people don’t even notice that. Things and certain behaviour is taken for granted not only by men but many women too.
Here is just one of the statements (read further to see where this comes from):
So many Russian girls are still growing up with an idea for a dream life: marry a rich husband and stay happy till the end your days (spending all your time on beauty procedures and travelling around the world in luxury).
But the reality hits them all when they are marrying let’s say a colleague or schoolmate and have to juggle between cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids and work to be what considered a good wife (this story may sound familiar to lots of women around the world). Sometimes, she would think about her past dreams to become a professional photographer, pilot or ballerina but she would push those thoughts away and will continue growing her daughters with the same idea of finding a great husband to build the life she always wanted to.
Gladly, some of those women will pass another idea to their children:
Do not be driven into the same vicious circle but think of your career and priorities first and don’t listen too much what others have to say. You are capable of achieving all the success and wonders of life! Go get it!
Luckily, it was my story. I always thought that I’m not worse but actually better and smarter than all the boys in my class. Being a very active student in my teenage years I ended up joining one of the best Universities in the country and moved far away from home to pursue degrees in International relations and Information technologies (I thought it was so cool to have a double major). Joining a very good school and meeting students from all over the country I felt being exposed to a different level of possibilities.
But the story is not about that.
After a year of attending lectures (reminder: I used to study a lot of political science as a part of my International relations degree - one of the most prestigious in the city) I started noticeably see that many of our male professors and teachers make too many sexist comments about women in politics, but of course, they thought they were just making innocent jokes. And guess who laughed the most?
All the males in the class.
That’s a perfect example of hidden sexism in Russia...
Why hidden? Because everyone thinks it’s a joke and everyone would still respect and listen to female students (btw who made up a half of our faculty students) but would they take them seriously in the future? Most of the time no, because we are talking about
a) politics (in 2017 only 18.3% of government ministers around the globe were women)
b) politics in Russia which has been man dominating for the past 200 years.
Honestly speaking, I didn’t have enough courage in my Uni years to speak up against professors’ sexist comments (I knew that I wasn’t keen to pursue my career in politics and was too busy to debate about that topic which I wasn’t bothered much about back then while I was running lots of volunteering projects with international students).
I haven’t spoken up because I was too afraid and shy at the same time
but the female students in my Uni today are more vocal. I’ve seen a couple of reposts from my schoolmates about a recent anti sexist campaign on my faculty and I couldn’t be more proud to see those young ladies driving the change in Russia!
They put the posters all around the school with sexist quotes of their teachers to show how their comments look from the side and remind to avoid bias judgements and promotion of gender stereotypes in the modern educational institute.
Here are just some of the statements from my Uni professors:
I still can clearly remember some of those comments from my professors.
Do I care?
Yes, I do, because those "little" comments subconsciously discourage young female talents to live the life they wanted, to pursue the career in political science and international relations and make a shift in how women are perceived in the world of politics and in Russia.
Do the statement hurt me?
Not anymore, because I choose to believe that I’m enough and way more capable than I even think about myself. But it hurts me to think that if those comments are acceptable in one of the most prestigious Universities of the country, women in Russia still have a very long way to go to achieve full equality.
Russian presidential elections 2018 will take place this weekend
Of course, our current president Mr. Putin is applying again (btw he was in power since 2000) and “rumours” say he has way stronger propagandist machine and he is most likely to win again.
But I will be voting for the only female candidate of these elections: Ksenia Sobchak who has studied on my faculty and probably heard the very same statements and comments from the professors as I and hundreds of other students.
But what I admire about her and her whole career (she was a TV host, journalist and actress in the past) is that she didn’t give a damn and still doesn’t about what people have thought or said about her.
This is the only way to shift the mindset and culture of very traditional misogynist societies:
Russia and other states need this shift. Feministic agenda today is as relevant as hundred years ago.
Girls from the very young age should be surrounded by extraordinary women - I believe that every woman already is and just needs to be reminded sometimes about her inner power - who can teach them dignity and strength. We also need our companions and partners. As Michelle Obama says, strong men don’t need to put the woman down to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up!
This March I invite you to think about all the women from the past and their achievements, all the women who are creating history today by simply speaking up at work demanding a raise, commenting on sexist statements of their teachers and not allowing man around treat them unequally in any way. Big changes ALWAYS start from small actions.
What would be your small actions? Do you have any examples from your life of sexism and misogyny? What would you say about the reality in your country?
Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
