Thread by @bopinion

Since the start of the year, Moscow’s subway has employed female drivers, one of several hundred job categories opened up to women.

Unfortunately, it only scratches the surface of changes Russia’s women deserve trib.al/NEvV2xT

Research shows that while they have historically participated relatively equally in the workforce, Russian women still earn almost a third less than men — one of the widest gaps among high and middle-income nations trib.al/NEvV2xT

Women in Russia have been more harshly affected by the pandemic given their over-representation in hard-hit sectors like retail and the fact many hold more precarious jobs.

They’ve suffered disproportionately, as a result, from frugal state support trib.al/NEvV2xT

Job limitations do matter. Enshrined in law in 2000, they kept women from 456 occupations deemed too dangerous, arduous or unhealthy, including:

🪚Working as a lumberjack
🔥Fighting fires
🚜Driving tractors
trib.al/NEvV2xT

A 2019 decision to open 356 of those came into effect this year.

It’s good news, especially for women in Russia’s traditional company towns, and a symbolic win with economic consequences — together, those 456 roles represent 4% of all occupations trib.al/NEvV2xT

But there are still 100 roles, mostly industrial, that remain formally out of bounds, and the problem runs even deeper.

Russia celebrates International Women’s Day with a public holiday, yet two in three Russians say they wouldn’t want a female president trib.al/NEvV2xT

Thanks to the country’s Soviet legacy, there is female representation, but very few women rise to the top.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report ranks Russia 122 out of more than 150 countries in its 2020 political empowerment index trib.al/NEvV2xT

One of last year’s most spectacular female political victories was accidental:

Marina Udgodskaya, a cleaner in northeast of Moscow, was strong-armed into standing against her pro-Kremlin boss to legitimize the race. She won by a landslide trib.al/NEvV2xT

A 2019 study of public companies found that, in general, the share of women on boards doesn’t rise above 10%.

All of this is made worse by an increasingly conservative leadership that hasn’t actively supported gender equality trib.al/NEvV2xT

So what should Russia do?

It can start by safeguarding women at home with strong legislation against domestic violence. Russia doesn’t currently have specific protective measures, and reported cases increased during the pandemic trib.al/NEvV2xT

As for the workplace, Moscow can simply lift all remaining legal restrictions on specific occupations.

These have an impact far beyond the specific sectors they target, and are sorely outdated trib.al/NEvV2xT