FUNDAMENTAL APPROACHES TO ELABORATING A STRATEGY FOR GENDER DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA

by Tatyana Melnikova, Ph.D. in political science; director of the Department of Women's Socio-Economic Status in Russia's Ministry of Labor and Social Development

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Developing gender-sensitive strategies in Russia is conditioned by several contemporary political tendencies, and by constant movement toward women's equality. Much has been done in this area in recent years in Russia: --the legal foundation has basically been laid; --a national mechanism has been created; --a national plan is in action; --collaboration with non-governmental women's organizations is growing; --gender is taken into account in programs looking at employment and in state statistics. The state's draft plans (kontseptsiia) on reproductive health and demographic policy are based on a gendered approach; --overall, in the women's movement, a general understanding has been reached that the achievement of gender equality will facilitate the successful resolution of global economic and social tasks.

In January of this year, the Russian Federation presented its fifth periodic report to the UN on fulfilling the Convention on Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination against Women [CEDAW], covering the years 1997-99, and also answered supplementary questions on changes in women's status occurring in the period up to 2001. A seminar on implementing accountability measures took place recently, where experts from the UN Committee on Ending Discrimination against Women gave speeches. They enlightened their Russian colleagues in detail about the experience of the world's states in implementing the Convention.

Work is actively continuing in the Russian State Duma on the draft bill, "On state protection of equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women," on which women's organizations are having a strong impact.

A second National Plan of Action is being implemented, covering the fundamental problem areas in women's status which need priority attention.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the women's movement, society's understanding of gender issues is gradually starting to shift.

As for the UN, particular attention is being paid to the implementation of gender-sensitive approaches, which examine the social policy of states around the world under the heading of "developing human potential." The main long term goal of this approach is to create a social-justice society, and to achieve stable development. It is written in our Constitution that Russia is a legal and a social welfare state. This obligates us to turn significantly more attention to the issues of women's status, particularly the status of women, who turned out to be the "losing party" in the course of reforms.

Meanwhile, men did not turn out to be winners either. "Men's problems" are on the rise in society too, problems associated with the worsening of men's health, their psychological state, the reduction in life expectancy, and growth of alcoholism, drug use, and so on.

Movement toward strategies to guarantee the equality of the sexes will allow for improving the living standards of men and women alike.

Despite evident achievements in gender equality, there has not been real movement toward gender equality in a number of areas. From this perspective, the actual task of moving to develop a strategy of gender development for Russia, still remains before us. Such a strategy would allow us to formulate fundamental approaches to achieving actual equality.

I will note only a few of these.

Macroeconomic strategies, which traditionally concentrate on lowering inflation and the budget deficit, are often based on the myth that high growth rates will reduce poverty and income inequality over time.

However, the lack of social protection makes vulnerable groups all the more vulnerable during crisis periods.

Macroeconomic policy and strategies should therefore include measures and guarantees for the economic protection of vulnerable groups, in order to avoid catastrophic consequences in periods of economic crisis.

But even if macroeconomic policy does not

If at the lower levels of the economy, programs on reducing poverty and measures for employment are developed and applied, this approach, although it seems critical for men's and women's interests, is still not capable of fundamentally changing the basic tendencies of poverty.

The lack of attention to gender issues and social justice at the macroeconomic level leads to the denial of the gendered disparities which exist at the middle and lower levels of the economy.

Thus, macroeconomic policies provide the tone and the general approach for all policies on state development.

At the international level, attempts have been made to bring the concepts of social justice into macroeconomic analysis, including the aspects of gender equality and poverty reduction.

This is based on the idea that social and economic rights are an inalienable part of the majority of agreements about basic human rights. A state can be considered to be in compliance with international agreements if its macroeconomic policy is aware of economic and social equality, including gendered aspects, as an eventual goal.

UN experts recommend including issues of social justice in macroeconomic analysis, inasmuch as they are tied to "human development," which has become a generally recognized goal of the UN.

Implementing gender issues and social justice requires a long term investment, and is most often achieved by reorienting macroeconomic approaches. Changing the approaches, in turn, changes the goals of macroeconomic policy. Its effectiveness can then be judged not by market criteria, but by how successfully the policy is able to further the issues of social justice and gender equality.

A higher level of gender equality is associated with large economic growth. Unequal social relations are an obstacle to stabilization and to a higher growth rate.

Thus, investment in gender equality and social justice is necessary at the macroeconomic level, which will provide for stable economic growth and serve to benefit the nation as a whole.

It is understandable that as long as the economy is not functioning, the stable growth of industry and agriculture will not begin. Nor will we be able to overcome the feminization of poverty, or reduce the gap in income levels between the rich and poor.

But the orientation of society toward creating a social welfare state suggests that the government should be not only democratic, and a social welfare state, but also a just one, in which the interests of the weak, vulnerable population groups are taken into account. In our macroeconomic strategies, as a rule, gendered approaches are lacking.

In Russia, as in several other countries, an attempt was made to analyze the budget from a gendered point of view.

Such analysis showed that the state formulates financial reserves and distributes resources such that, in the final analysis, this has an impact on the well being of particular individuals and populations, and on the development of the nation as a whole.

Budgets always reflect the priorities and values of the government, and also choices made by representatives of the authorities in order to carry out their socio-economic agenda. They also distribute resources, make social services accessible, stabilize prices, and give rise to economic growth and employment.

Governmental priorities are easy to define by means of a close look at the formulation and use of state resources, at the national, regional, and local levels.

The social content of the budget should reflect the goals of gender equality and social justice, distributing resources and formulating incomes such that they are fair from a social and gendered perspective.

It follows that an important prerequisite for achieving social justice and gender equality is a socially just budget.

The budget analyses carried out in a variety of counties (such an attempt was also made by us) showed that the priorities of budget financing tend as a rule to be in the area of "men's interests," and also in industrial branches or types of activity that provide primarily for men's employment.

For example, the following expenses are financed exclusively from the federal budget: providing for the activity of the President of the Russian Federation, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Accounting Office of the Russian Federation, the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation, the functioning of the justice system, the implementation of international activities, national defense and providing for state security, carrying out the conversion of defense plants to other uses, state support for railroad, sea, and air transport, atomic energy, addressing the consequences of emergency situations and accidents that occur as a result of forces of nature on a federal scale, and space research.

At the same time, financing for health care, education, culture and sports - areas that primarily employ women - are financed from the lower level budgets, while the social welfare budget, which is used primarily by women, is financed by resources which are divided between budgets at various levels.

It is necessary to subject budget policy to regular analysis from a gender-sensitive perspective, in order to distribute budget expenditures such that women benefit.

Solving the problem of women's influence on macroeconomic politics and on budget formation is directly tied to the problem of women's representation at the highest levels of decisionmaking.

Women have not yet managed to change the level of their representation at the decisionmaking level. It is, however, obvious that without achieving gender equality in leadership, women will not be able to achieve full equality with men in any sphere. The lack of women's votes in the process of forming the most fundamental political instruments preserves gender inequality even in places where it has no direct relation to the problem of government, for instance, in issues of women's health and security. Unfortunately, in society this is only weakly acknowledged.

Participating in the processes of government on a gender-balance d basis means not only the physical presence of men and women, but also concerns the quality of their participation.

The representation of women is extremely important. The systematic barriers which often keep women from participating in state structures of government are quite high. One must pay attention particularly to these barriers in order to achieve serious progress. Besides, this is often associated with informal relationships (networks) which men establish amongst themselves, and which are inseparable from the process of decisionmaking. This male political culture keeps women outside of many informal relationships in politics.

Women's greater participation should help society realize how important gender issues are in political process and in the formation of social policy.

As world experience has shown, without posing concrete goals, with time limits, it is impossible to achieve them. It is reasonable, as was done in Sweden or in Finland, to pose the goal, for example, of achieving no less than 30% of government posts, and no less than 50% of parliamentary seats, being for men or women, by the year 2010.

The gender balance in parties is an indicator of how attractive their policies are to women. It is worth looking at the activity of several women's organizations which actively work with political parties, raising their consciousness about including gender-sensitive approaches in their political programs and ongoing activities.

There remains the very real problem of changing popular stereotypes on the subject of women's equality. Research in recent years shows that the achievement of women's equality is not seen in society as being a real problem. However, as research shows, average women do not consider this issue relevant to their interests, and are prepared to delegate the solution of their problems to men. This was shown by the results of several elections.

The mass media often furthers old stereotypes, without taking a scientific position on issues. It is precisely the mass media which plays a key role in reflecting gender roles and stereotypes, where we often see the inculcation of a consumerist relationship to women, or the imposed image of the homemaker who is worried about problems in her bathtub, toilet and kitchen, but not about politics.

According to the UN, the constant use and perpetuation of stereotypical images of women and men, "does not create a realistic or accurate picture of men's and women's multiple roles, or of their contribution to this changing world." It is precisely because of this that getting rid of societal stereotypes and introducing gender equality is so necessary in this sector.

The mass media sheds light only weakly on women's political preferences, women's demands and interests, and leaders from among women's ranks. The images of politicians - male and female - are presented differently. In particular, the mass media is inclined to pay more attention to the physical appearance of women and to women's emotional side, than to women's businesslike qualities.

In practice, this leads to women not forming a model for their own political identity, or for the legitimacy of their views.

Meanwhile, those women who achieve political success could become influential examples for involving other women in politics. It would likely make sense to seek out formal and informal possibilities for women-leaders to meet with other women, girls, and so on, to talk about their experiences.

It is necessary to apply our efforts to influencing editorial policies, and to get publishers to change their existing practices in this regard.

If the journalistic establishment, particularly women journalists, could change along these lines, it would help to effectively use the mass media in the process of introducing gender-sensitive approaches.

Gender as a topic is practically missing from the education system. The presence of gender studies centers in a number of Russian higher education institutions, and individual specialists on this issue, does not meet society's needs at this point in time. The majority of textbooks, both at the grade school and high school levels, are filled with stereotypes which perpetuate particular cultural-behavioral gender differences.

Despite the flourishing of the women's movement in this country, it remains organizationally weak and divided. The informational resources of the Internet and women's networks, designed to strengthen ties between organizations, work only weakly. The influence of the women's movement on social processes is correspondingly weak.

Moreover, the development of new informational and communication technologies changes the means of conducting affairs of the state, the private sector, and civil society.

Broader use of electronic media (the Internet, electronic mail, web resources) can also facilitate the spread of knowledge about gender equality.

Gender policy should be based on scientific research and analysis.

In regard to this, it is relevant to make use of professional scientific organizations that could collaborate with the authorities and with the administration to carry out surveys and expert research on this topic.

However, the problem is that we do not yet have professional expert organizations. Expertise is offered on an amateur basis. Bringing in specialists and consultants from time to time to carry out research does not satisfy today's demand. Research studies on society and on gender should become a norm of administrative activity, in order to "initiate, recommend, and ease the development, adoption and monitoring of the implementation of laws, programs, and measures for expanding the rights and opportunities of women." But for that to happen, it is necessary to educate people to become experts, and to educate state employees and women's organizations.

In this article, I have made note of only the basic approaches to developing a strategy for the gender development of Russia. The strategy itself, naturally, should take the form of a document. Such a document could be used in the development of the basic ideas in the state's plan [kontseptsiia] for improving women's status, but would be more broad in its content.

Working groups conducted a large analytical study, a series of round tables, and "brainstorming" sessions. As a result of this work, the following directions for a gender strategy were proposed:

--an overview of gender equality in Russia;

--socio-economic indicators of gender equality;

--social indicators of gender equality;

--gender expertise;

--the gendered aspects of health care

--the gendered aspects of education;

--the gendered aspects of developing entrepreneurship;====== --the impact of gender stereotypes on decisionmaking.

The development and ensuing broad discussion in society of gender-sensitive strategies, it is imagined, will allow for the creation of a new document which meets international standards for gender equality, and on the basis of which it will be possible to carry out an efficient policy in the area of achieving the equality of men and women.

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