The feminist movement in Russia in historical perspective

The study reviews the history of the feminist (women's) movement in Russia. The paper describes the main stages of feminism development in Europe, analyzes several gender works of Western researches. The author emphasizes the spread of women's movement in the USSR and Russia, the legitimization of women's rights, and the creation of communities to support gender equality. The study reveals the attitude of the Russian people towards the feminist movement by examining the results of various empirical surveys conducted in the Russian society. Despite the struggle for equal rights for women and men, different forms of discrimination continue to exist. Thus, women rarely hold the senior positions, their wages are lower than men's ones. The legislative instruments adopted by the government to overcome the gender imbalance are not implemented or not fully implemented. The research defines the differences of the feminist movement in Europe and Russia. It is concluded that the women's movement that does not antagonize the men and uses the tools and mechanisms created by men to defend their ideals, rights and freedoms has become more common in Russia.