MEN AND WOMEN AT THE ELECTIONS:

Gender Analysis of the Electoral Campaigns
of 1999 and 2000 in Russia

INTRODUCTION

When summarizing major events of the twentieth century, professional analysts, as a rule, mention the mass entrance of women into politics and governmental authorities as one of the main achievements.

This "quiet women's revolution" turned out to be most successful in such countries as Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland. Women in these countries achieved equal representation at all levels of authority, and, most importantly, changed the content of politics, making health care, education, retirement benefits etc its priorities. Thus, most budgetary financing in these countries is allocated to social sphere.

As a result of influence of the women who came to power, these countries became most easy and comfortable for ordinary people to live in, and, therefore, most developed and stable. These countries' democracies are based on the solid foundation of their citizens' participation in the life of society and in the determination of the goals and objectives of its development; participation of all citizens - both men and women.

The world community has recognized the value of this experience. It made the United Nations compare characteristics and major activities of parliaments in those countries where they have different gender composition. According to the UN's assessment, only when there are more than 20 percent of women in the Corps of Deputies of a given country, do legislators start to develop laws that are really in the interests of children. And only when the percentage of women is close to 30%, laws and governmental programs responding to urgent needs of women are adopted. But the main conclusion the UN came to was that only equal participation of women and men in the organs of the state government ensures the adoption of responsible political, social, and economic decisions, thus ensuring stable development of any country. How do Russian women participate in the political process?

Looking back to history, until the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia was an absolute monarchy where nobody - either men or women - had a right to participate in politics and a right to vote. The bourgeois revolution of 1905 radically changed the situation. On October 17, 1905, Tzar Nicholas II issued the Supreme Manifest declaring the introduction of the new constitutional order and convocation of the State Duma - the body of people's representation. The Law on the Order of Elections to the State Duma, published on December 11, 1905, gave electoral rights only to men. Thus, women were excluded from the category of citizens holding political rights.

Since that time the issue of equal rights of women and men, of granting women rights and opportunities to participate in the political process, to elect and be elected in representative authorities, has not been solved. Women's organizations were the first to attempt to solve the issue; at the beginning of the twentieth century they actively advocated the idea of women's equality. For this purpose, they used various forms of collective actions, such as petitions to government authorities, gatherings, meetings, and demonstrations.

One of the most prominent actions of that time was the Appeal of the Russian Women's Mutual Charity Society, the oldest women's organization, to the first State Duma, which was signed by 5,000 women. Discussion of the Appeal in the Duma lead to the establishment of the special committee whose purpose was to develop legislation on granting women electoral rights. But the first State Duma did not have time to discuss the issue. It was dissolved right after the Committee had been formed.

"Equal righters" (this is how women egalitarians in Russia were called at the beginning of the twentieth century) appealed to the second State Duma. But neither the second, nor the third or the fourth Dumas that came after it gave women political rights. Only the revolution of 1917, in which women took active part, changed the situation. The February revolution officially declared equality of women as one of the major principles of social life, while the October revolution, with the help of a whole number of decrees, implemented this principle in its own way.

The state policy aimed at ensuring gender equality, that was based on this principle, was a peculiar model of liberating women, and helped the idea of women's equality to take root all over the world. But in our country, due to the way it was implemented, the consequences were rather controversial. Women got involved in the production process, gained access to education, and could even participate both in local autonomous authorities and in the Supreme Soviet - the country's parliament.

However, as it is known, those authorities had no real power. Moreover, deputies to the Supreme Soviet were rather nominated than elected, and then those nominated were unanimously voted for. The real power belonged to the Communist Party, and to its governing bodies, to be exact: the General Secretary, the Bureau of Politics, the Secretariat, and the Central Committee that was approving their decisions. At the dawn of the soviet epoch, very few women were among the Communist Party leaders. No women were there during Stalin's rule. Only during the Khruschev time do we find women at the highest authority level. In seventy years of the soviet power, until Mikhail Gorbachev, only one woman, Ekaterina Furtseva, was a member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Despite these facts, the proportion of women among deputies of the Supreme Soviet and local autonomous authorities was impressing. Women were included there to fulfill the quota. For local autonomous authorities the quota was 40-50 percent, and for the Supreme Soviet - at least 30 percent.

In 1989, at the Congress of people's deputies, those quotas were abolished. It was assumed that instead of the top-down guaranteed representation of women there would be their real representation. When the parliament, however, gained real power, and elections were no longer conducted on a no-alternative basis and became highly competitive, women's representation shrunk dramatically.

At the Congress of people's deputies elected in the following year (1990), percentage of women was only 5,6%. Any rises in the following years were insignificant.

But why did it happen? It's true the country was in the deepest crisis. The USSR dissolved to give way to a rather ephemeral structure of the CIS. Russia began to build the state anew, largely rejecting its socialist past. But the state policy on ensuring gender equality was officially inherited from the previous social order. Moreover, a step forward was made: in the environment where emergence of multiple parties and civil initiatives was encouraged, many various women's social movements appeared, seeking to achieve real, not formal equality.

Such pressure lead to the adoption of one of the most important legal acts ensuring equal opportunities for women and men in all spheres of social life. It was vested in article 19 (section 3) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, forming a part of the section called "Human Rights". It runs as follows: "Men and women shall have equal rights and freedoms, and equal opportunities for their realization".

As a follow-up, a number of other legal documents were adopted in the 1990s. Among these there were the Decrees of the President "On the Primary Objectives of the State Policy on Women's Issues" (1993) and "On Increasing the Role of Women in the System of the Federal State Authorities and State Authorities of the Subjects of the Russian Federation" (1996), as well as the Decree of the Government "On Approving the National Action Plan for the Improvement of the Position of Women and Increasing Their Role in Society by the Year 2000" that in particular included a commitment to increase women's representation in the state authority structures.

In the 1990s, the legislative branch also contributed to the development of conditions to ensure the realization of the principle of equal rights for women and men. Among its important acts were the ratification of Convention #156 MOT "On Equal Treatment and Equal Opportunities for Working Men and Women: Working People with Family Responsibilities", and the adoption of "The Concept of the Law-Making Activity to Ensure Equal Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women".

Besides, the fact that Russia signed a number of international agreements proposed by the United Nations, International Labor Organization etc. and aimed at eliminating discrimination and inequality in the position of men and women at work, in governmental structures, and family, imposed additional obligations on our country in terms of ensuring real equality for men and women. First of all, it was the Convention on Eliminating All Forms of Discrimination with Regard to Women (adopted in 1979), the above mentioned Convention #156 MOT, decisions of the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), of the World Meeting for Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995), and the World Conference on the Position of Women (Beijing) etc.

Did all of these legal provisions, degrees, and acts ensure equal representation of women and men in the sphere of politics and government?

Statistics clearly assure of the contrary. Today in the sphere of civil service most women hold positions that do not assume extension of any decision-making power. Women compose 56 percent of state civil servants at the federal level, but leading position belong only to 9 percent, while only 1.3 percent of women hold so-called "highest" positions. For instance, in 1999, there was only one woman in the Russian Government - vice Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko.

606 women work in the judicial branch at the federal level -the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, and the High Arbitration Court, or about 72 percent of the staff. However, only three women have the positions at the level of heads of secretariats, assistants to court chairs, their deputies, and judges (14 percent of those holding positions at this level).

As it is known, in 1990s, the legal branch structures turned into one of the most important sources for the formation of the state elite. What is going on there?

In 1999, there was only one woman in the upper house of the Russian Parliament - the Council of the Federation consisting of 178 people.

Among the deputies of the lower house of the Parliament, the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the first convocation (1993-1995), there were 13.6 percent of women. In the State Duma of the second convocation (1995-1999) women represented only 10 percent.

Among the deputies of the Legislative Councils of the subjects of the Russian Federation there are about 10 percent of women. And this number varies significantly from region to region. In some regions, as, for instance, in the Legislative Council of the Kurgan Oblast, women take up to 30 percent of the seats, while in others regional parliaments, as it is in that of the Kursk Oblast, women are not represented at all.

Since political parties and movements, by definition, serve as the main channel to politics and as the bridge between citizens and the state, it is important to understand how women are represented there and how they support and encourage political activities of women and promote women to government structures.

As of January 1, 1999, there were 141 socio-political movements registered in the country, 6 of which were women's organizations. Women headed 17 movements. However, there were almost no women at the head of the largest political parties, with the exception of Irina Khakamada who became one of the three leaders of the "Union of the Right Forces".

On the other hand, it is known that all political parties and movements welcome women's participation in their electoral campaigns as agitators, observers, and members of electoral committees. But what support would women receive should they intend to stand for deputies to the parliament, or for the position of the president of the country?

The elections to the Parliament in 1999 and the presidential elections in 2000 gave an opportunity to analyze this issue not in terms of abstract notions about the role of men and women in society, but based on concrete data derived from the study of electoral tickets of various parties, single mandate electoral district tickets, programs of political parties and candidates to presidency, official results of elections, and sociological surveys, including those conducted by the Public Opinion Fund.

Before going to such analysis, it should be observed that the constitutional provision for the equal rights for women and men turned out to be disconnected with the current legislation on procedures of elections to government authorities. When selecting candidates to electoral tickets of parties and candidates from single mandate electoral districts, or putting up candidates to the position of the president, the gender component of the activity of political parties and movements was determined only by the Constitution which, by definition, is the direct act. How well was the law observed?