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A new wind is blowing in Russia for women, at least for those who want to become truck drivers, helmsmen or pilots. The Russian government has opened the door to several hundred professions that, under a law of the late Soviet era, were previously prohibited for women.
These days on the legendary Moscow metro, there is something different. Women have returned as train drivers for the first time in more than a generation. “There was an advertisement in our local newspaper for subway workers… looking for women drivers. “I was one of the first to be called and registered,” said Kristina Vakulenko, a driver. Train drivers are just one of more than 350 occupations made available to Russian women after the government repealed a law of the late Soviet era that protected women from occupations that were seen as “dangerous” to fertility.
The change marks a victory for women’s rights activists, who have spent decades challenging the law in court and who can now pursue careers in their chosen field openly, whatever direction they take. “I discovered that I could not work even though I had a license. Of course this made me angry. I did not even think that the government could allow me to study but not to work. Funny!” says Evgeniia Markova, truck driver. But it has not always been so.
The Soviet Union brought women some benefits in terms of their rights, far more than what the capitalist West offered to women. Women were recruited into communist causes with the promise of equal rights, education, and access to labor. It was a policy that played an important role in the country’s productivity in the field of defense during the darkest days of World War II. But as women’s rights activists say, the expectations were for women to pursue a career and start a family.
“The main slogan of the former Soviet republics was that men and women are equal in terms of labor force. But it was not true. “Our reality during that time and today in Russia is that women have dual responsibilities,” said Alena Popova, a women’s rights activist.
Today the achievements for equal rights are far away…
In Russia, women earn on average 30 percent less than men… among the widest pay gaps between industrialized countries. Russia has also faced strong criticism for decriminalizing various forms of domestic violence… part of a government effort to preserve “traditional” Russian families despite the threat posed to women, critics say. But surveys and life experience show that changing gender attitudes is sometimes more difficult than changing the law.
“Sometimes old truckers who are 50 or 60 years old say they do not agree… Do you not agree ?! It is your right, move forward “, says Evgeniia Markova, truck driver. Meanwhile women continue to lack access to about 100 professions including those in mining and construction, a constraint against which they continue to struggle.
“I think all professions should be open to women because they themselves have the right to decide which profession works for them and which does not,” said Svetlana Medvedeva, captain of a ship. But for now, the addition of hundreds of new professions for women is a victory over lost time./VOA
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