Mixed signals: what Putin says about gender equality

Authors

Janet Elise Johnson, Brooklyn College
Alexandra Novitskaya, Stony Brook University
Valerie Sperling, Clark UniversityFollow
Lisa Mc Intosh Sundstrom, The University of British Columbia

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The prevailing wisdom among scholars of gender in Russia is that Vladimir Putin–as Russia’s “strongman” president–has become an agent of traditionalism. Some political scientists, often without a gendered lens, have argued that Putin is not so powerful, compelled to deploy various tactics and ideologies to balance competing interests among elites and retain support from the general public. We systematically analyze Putin’s statements about gender in two decades of his annual speeches (1999–2020) to better understand how Putin rules. Coding Putin’s remarks on a spectrum from promoting to opposing gender equality, we find that there has been no shift toward an explicit traditionalism, but rather, an expansion of the gender-stereotypical/Soviet views that have dominated Putin’s pronouncements all along. We argue that Putin’s diverse remarks across the spectrum of gender (in)equality constitute an important part of his efforts to balance diverse elite interests and enlist mass support.

Publication Title

Post-Soviet Affairs

Publication Date

2021

Volume

37

Issue

6

First Page

507

Last Page

525

ISSN

1060-586X

DOI

10.1080/1060586X.2021.1971927

Keywords

gender, politics, Putin, regime dynamics, Soviet, speeches

Repository Citation

Johnson, Janet Elise; Novitskaya, Alexandra; Sperling, Valerie; and Sundstrom, Lisa Mc Intosh, "Mixed signals: what Putin says about gender equality" (2021). Political Science. 87.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_political_science/87