Anatomy of a Stalled Revolution

Processes of Reproduction and Change in Russian Women's Gender Ideologies

Bibliographic Data

ID2368066
AuthorsSarah Ashwin (0000-0002-5258-3119, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author), Olga Isupova (0000-0002-4189-2063, Higher School of Economics, Russia)
Year2018
Volume32
Issue4
Pages441-468
Publication date2018-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2432 • E-ISSN: 1552-3977
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891243218776309
OpenAlexW2801865342
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited32

Russia's gender revolution notoriously produced women's economic empowerment without domestic equality. Although the Soviet state vastly expanded women's employment, this had little impact on a starkly unequal gender division of domestic labor. Such 'stalling' is common, but in Russia its extent and persistence presents a puzzle, requiring us to investigate linkages between macro-level factors and micro-level interactions regarding the gender division of domestic labor. We do this by focusing on gender ideology, an important variable explaining the gender division of domestic labor that bridges the macro level of the gender order and the micro-interactional level. We use longitudinal qualitative data to examine continuity and change in young Russian women's gender ideologies between 1999 and 2010. Based on an analysis of 115 in-depth interviews from 23 respondents, we identify traditional and egalitarian trajectories and the processes underlying them, showing how the male breadwinner schema and an ideology of women's independence support traditionalism, while non-traditional breadwinning and interactional support from men facilitate egalitarianism. Our analysis enables us to explain the Soviet gender paradox and distinguish sources of change in the post-Soviet era. Our theoretical contribution is to situate gender ideology in a multilevel framework, the efficacy of which we demonstrate in our empirical analysis

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Demographic economics · Division of labour · Doing gender · Economics · Egalitarianism · Empowerment · Gender history · Ideology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies