Copyright by Tatiana Borisovna Segura 2008 - The University of ...

wages, high rates of unemployment, domestic violence and abuse – all these factors make
women look for a better life outside of Russia, which often results in becoming sex slaves
of the trafficking industry.
Female trafficking abroad is only one of the negative side effects of the post-
communist Russian economy. A full range of sexual services, including pornography,
prostitution, striptease clubs and telephone sex, started flourishing in the new market
economy, having a significant effect on the interpretation of gender roles and sexuality in
Russia. Viewing women primarily as sex objects demotes women to the status of second-
class citizens whose primary role is to please men, both at home and at work (Zabelina).
Thus, the gender inequality in post-communist Russia should not be exclusively confined
to the topics of family and employment. The collapse of the communist regime has
brought about changes in the cultural practices and made pornography, prostitution and
human trafficking a common practice (Kon 212).
Attitudes towards feminism and gender studies
Because of its communist past and the strong belief that Russia should follow its
own course of development different from the one imposed by the West, many Russians
experience negative associations with such expressions as “gender equality” and
“feminine emancipation” (Posadskaya; Edmondson; Lissyutkina). Edmondson argues
that Russians resist western feminism because it is “understood to be a competitive
ideology which aims to sacrifice all that is ‘feminine’ in women, in a mad pursuit of
equal rights and opportunities with men…” (95). Lissyutkina observes that not only
Russian men but also many Russian women are opposed to feminism. She believes that
every experience of life during the Soviet regime made the idea of feminism or
emancipation unacceptable to Russian women. The shortage of goods and services turned
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