ISSUE 20 (36) 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS The titles of articles translated and reprinted here are highlighted in the Table of Contents.

by Natalia Kulinka, PhD Candidate, Belorus State University, Minsk It’s official. Belorus is currently experiencing a “gender boom.” More and more conferences and seminars of academic, scientific and activist nature feature the word “gender” in their titles. But this tendency is, to say the least, not reflected in the public consciousness.

Dear Readers, Most of you will get this issue after March 8 [Women’s Day], after you have received the traditional flowers and best wishes. Let’s remember that in one of our past issues of the magazine we wrote that March 8 was born as a day of women’s struggle for their rights. Historically, it is premature for us to forget this.The last issue was devoted to global problems, to global security and its fragility. Many of our authors expressed concern about violence on a world scale.

by Mila Faradhzulaeva Journalist, literary editor of "Zerkalo" newspaper, Baku Archetypes "The Book of Our Father Korkut" is an ancient epic of the Oguz people, the ancestors of modern day Azerbaijanis. It is the Turkic "Kalevala," "Slovo o Polku Igoreve," the "Iliad" - one could continue this list. And the heroes' characters are archetypal here.

"Non-Stop Sexism? " an interview by Alina Ilina with Olga Lipovskaya, the director of the St. Petersburg Center for Gender Issues "A woman is friend to man -- but in third place, after dogs and horses," or so said Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, deputy to the State Duma.

by Anna Denisova Candidate of Philology The Russian women’s movement has taken a beating on the issue of legally enforced gender quotas in government agencies (whereby no more than 70% of the available spots would go to individuals of either sex)—the amendment was rejected by the State Duma in the second reading of an election bill.