WOMEN'S POLITICS: WOMEN'S POWER

The next year will give the start to a new interregional program, Empowerment for Women, initiated by a group of female leaders of non-government organizations and researchers with the support of Heinrich Boelle Foundation and active involvement of East-West: Women's Innovation Projects organization, St. Petersburg Gender Problems Center, and Heinrich Boelle Foundation Moscow Bureau. The program implies initiation of an international women's lobbying coalition that will help develop the concept of 'female politics'. The term is used to designate government politics based on principles of non-aggressiveness, social security as the key priority, and respect of human life and dignity.

The program initiators believe that present political, economic and cultural trends in Russia are disadvantageous from the standpoint of women. First of all, political actions of government authorities bear masculine, aggressive, and military appearance. Government bodies are dominated by men. And those women who participate in political decision-making and implementation hardly realize the scope of actual interests of Russian women and, therefore, they fail to defend them. The second argument in favor of 'female politics' lies in the sphere of economics. National economy restructuring has resulted in severe stratification of the society, unemployment, low personal income level, and inefficient social guarantees suffered by the majority of the national population. This trend has badly affected living standards experienced by most women. Finally, traditional Russian social and cultural values imply that women play the role of a mother and of a housewife. This image dominates public opinion and deprives a woman of the right to self-expression in a creative and societal-oriented fashion. Masculine cultural orientation towards domination of power and secondary standing of women as compared to men serves good ground for widespread acts of violation suffered by women nationwide. The program initiators believe that, while women's organizations have been emerging in dozens in past years, women's movement in Russia is underdeveloped, as it lacks consolidation and efficiency. Women's organizations, in their majority, are forced to stay within the range of activities aimed at finding solutions to the most pressing of present-day problems, that is, they simply do their best to 'clean the mess' of acute political and economic consequences of what is going on in the society. These groups practically fail to cooperate, consolidate, and realize their common interests.

The program developers call to deploy joint efforts aimed at creation of consolidated women's movement that will actually affect political decisions. Moreover, the movement itself shall become a powerful political force. Instead of being subjected to political manipulations, women shall become players in the field of policy-making. Empowerment for Women program is intended to help women in undertaking a qualitative breakthrough and merging standalone female initiative in a unified women's movement.

The program pays much attention to helping women (1) realize and articulate their rights and interests; and (2) promote their interests at the level of decision-making (primarily, in regions). The program target groups include women's organizations and initiatives (as well as other organizations in support of democracy, civil and political rights), local governments, female leaders and activists, journalists, political and public players. The program will encompass activities in the following four fields:

• conducting public and political discussion of the basic concept of women's politics;
• developing human resources and supporting women's non-government organizations;
• analyzing and generalizing successful experience in women's policies implementation for its further highlighting and dissemination;
• consolidation of women's organizations.

More information about Empowerment for Women program is available from: Ludmila Kabanova, program coordinator at Henrich Belle Memorial Foundation Moscow Bureau (tel./fax (095) 254 1453, e-mail: tomarowskaja@moskau.ru), East-West: Women's Innovation Projects (tel. (902) 604 0548, fax (095) 931 3123, e-mail: info@owl.ru), and St. Petersburg Center of Gender Problems (tel./fax (812) 275 8722, e-mail: pcgi@mail.dux.ru).