It is indisputable that both the United States and Russia have gained milestones in the pursuit of gender equality and affirmative action for women. It is doubtful that women should not be called “the weaker sex” anymore. While both countries have gone through radical transformations in the societal view of gender roles, it is clear that the two countries are not at par when it comes to gender equality. The roadmaps to the current position of gender balance for the United States and Russia have demonstrated stark differences, and that is the key to unearthing grave disparities in the state and level of gender balance in the two countries https://super-essays-service.com/write-my-case-brief

Main Gender Controversies

Ideological Controversy

The Soviet states have been slow in adopting new views as to the roles that both genders play. The old-fashioned, traditional, patriarchal views have stubbornly and sturdily refused to give way to fresh ideas of gender equality and gender balance. The radical ideas of woman power have not yet caught on in the Soviet states, and even in the twenty-first century, there are still incidents that prove that the traditional ideals of femininity, masculinity and gender roles still reign supreme over the revolutionary ideas of gender balance. In contrast, the United States of America has witnessed a departure from the archaic, patriarchal ideas to a new set of equality ideas, which are in the process of implementation. Gender equality in the United States has received steady political and civilian backing.

Another ideological controversy in the Soviet states has been the “gender equality myth”. The ideals of gender equality have been rife, but their implementation has been elusive, leading to a situation where all the high ideals come to naught. True gender equality has been quite elusive in the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, in the United States, the gender equality has been an achievable ideal, and zealous effort has been directed towards its realization.

Reality Controversy

Despite the grim picture that has been painted by the lack of implementation of the high ideals, it is perhaps surprising that women in the Soviet Union have enjoyed more benefits on a larger scale than women in the United States. Women in the United States endured the harsh realities of anti-woman bigotry groups, heightened attacks on the right to abort and absurdly costly incidents of child care. In contrast, women in Russia enjoyed high levels of quality state-provided health care, maximum abortion rights, access to a wide spectrum of trades and professions and even an equally privileged economic status as their male counterparts.

In Russia, women have been able to balance work and family obligations still living true to the stereotypic feminist roles of family housekeeping. In Russia, the balance that is struck between work and family duty is not an idealistic idea but an attainable reality.

The same cannot be said for the United States of America. The career-family balance has been the topic of many discussions in the United States. It is generally agreed that the family is suffering the consequences of an ever-increasing population of emancipated women who treasure their careers above anything else in their lives.

Despite the paradise-like picture portrayed for Russia, there is no doubt that women are still facing more discrimination on the basis of gender than in the United States. It is perhaps true that women of the United States are more assertive than their Russian counterparts who still have to offer perks to get what should rightfully be theirs. The discrimination that Russian women encounter is so intense that it almost negates the steps that Russia has taken against gender imbalance.

Gender in Early Soviet Years: From Baba to Comrade

Social Sphere

Russia has seen a drastic change in the role of women in their society. The emancipation of women has washed out the idea of male supremacy and has introduced the idea that women and men are equal partners. Some of the strategies that have made this a reality are mass literacy campaigns to stamp out illiteracy among women, promotion of education among Russian women, and a collective drive to erase the stereotype that women are inferior. The women of Russia have gone all out to correct this stereotype and replace it with the one that women are strong, capable members of society who work side by side with men.

In addition to all the steps taken by the Russian women towards their emancipation, there was a collective drive to build an infrastructure that would facilitate the process of bridging the gap between women and their male counterparts. The structures built were libraries, adult schools, women workers’ clubs, maternity hospitals, day care centers and communal food kitchens.

By comparison, the United States of America has also taken steps to facilitate the emancipation of the American women. The oppression that women have faced in legal, political and social circles for centuries on end has been increasingly criticized, and it has found fewer places in the hearts of American people as time goes by.

Political Circles

In Russia, the political landscape began to change in the early twentieth century with the Russian revolution. Despite the considerable resistance to change that was put up by sticks in the mud, Russian women acquired the right to vote in 1917. In spite of that, there were no women leaders in the Communist Party until 1924, and even then, only about eight percent of members of the party were women. By comparison, their American counterparts did not get the right to vote until 1920. Similarly, as it was in Russia, women did not get vital elective posts in the party until much later. In the US, 1984 was the first time a major party chose a woman, Geraldine Ferraro, to run for the vice-president.

Gender in the Early Soviet Years: Sexuality & Family

The Russian Revolution brought drastic changes to the Russian view of sexuality and gender roles in the family. Women were no longer compelled to change their last names after marriage. Moreover, women had the liberty to define themselves as distinct civic entities, separated from their husbands and fathers. Sexual liberty increased tremendously with the legalization of abortion in 1920 and the depiction of marriage as being a bourgeois institution. People preferred extramarital and premarital sex to the traditionally celebrated intra-marital sex, and prostitution peaked. Prostitution, however, has remained illegal but not a serious crime.

Across the Pacific, in the United States, the nuclear family was favored more in the early twentieth century as sociologist studies proposed that it was best suited for a capitalist nation’s economic growth. Moreover, sexual freedom was stifled for a long period. In 1996, an act prohibiting the federal government from recognizing the same-sex marriage in its various states was passed, and this has only been recently challenged in a number of states. Moreover, prostitution is illegal in all the 50 states of the United States of America but one, which is Nevada.

While both countries have witnessed revolutionary changes in views regarding sexuality and family, there has hardly been the political will to reflect these views in the legislations of both countries. Therefore, sexual revolution and views on family in both nations largely remain a matter of opinion rather than legislation-backed facts.

Gender Issues under Stalinism

Josef Stalin was a staunch supporter of the traditional gender roles, and his rule saw a brief slip back into the years when women were ‘the weaker sex’. During Stalinism, abortion was abolished and restricted to dire medical cases. Marriages were required to go through all the requisite legal processes, and the penalties imposed on divorce and people who did not meet their child support obligations became higher. The Stalinist years in Russia witnessed a push to reconvert back to conservationist ideas of sexuality and gender roles. According to the 1936 Stalin Constitution, gender equality had been achieved. Apparently, the constitution only reflected the de jure state of affairs as the government trampled rights of its citizens and suppressed the expression of women’s rights. There was heightened propaganda about traditional roles of women within the household; women magazines emphasized the joy of homemaking; the general trend that was encouraged was a return to the traditional depiction of women more as a representation of beauty than as equals with men. Women were encouraged to adorn themselves more and look ‘more feminine’ than before. Sexophobia was on a rising trend. Women were on the path back to the downtrodden societal position.

Meanwhile, the same period in the United States witnessed an upsurge of the number of women who enrolled in colleges. Women in the United States and other Western countries experienced crippling legal disabilities up to the early decades of the twentieth century. Thereafter, the legal and political landscape began tipping in their favor. For example, American women acquired the right to vote in 1920.

Homemaking Post WW1 Era

The world wars created an opportunity for women to catch up on the areas where they were lagging behind socially, economically and politically. The war had drastically reduced the population of men in industries and workplaces, and women moved in to fill these gaps. There was therefore a stir in the roles of women as far as homemaking was concerned. Women had to cope with work and family needs at the same time. The pressure on women to be the centre of the family was not letting up despite their increased involvement in the industries.

In order to surmount this, family networking roles were beefed up, and daytime care came into prominence. This was as true for Russia as it was for the United States since the impact of the war on the population was almost equally profound for both the west and the east.

The Transition in the 1990s

The United States and Russia today have achieved fair success in correcting the gender disparities that have dogged both countries for a long time. In the New Russia, women held a better societal position at the turn of the century than they previously did. However, the statistics were still quite grim, especially politically. Women held a meager 1.3 percent of top government positions. However, in the corporate world, women in Russia had caught on quite well commanding 50 percent of the top notch positions.

In the United States, women finally appear to be achieving what the Women’s Rights Movement set out to achieve in 1848. Although the United States has been ranked thirty-first in achieving gender equality behind many European countries, there is a reason to believe that gender equality in the U.S is no longer just a dream but a future certainty. The United States needs to work on the employment, pay and political disparities between women and men.

Both the United States and Russia have come a long way to where they currently stand as far as gender is concerned. Although they have both achieved remarkable milestones in the pursuit of gender parity, it remains to be seen whether total gender equality will be achieved in both countries.