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Putin stirs up Russian politics
26/09/2007 12:28 - (SA)
Moscow - In many countries, it wouldn't have a whiff of revolution about it, but when President Vladimir Putin named a pair of women to the new Russian government this week, the country sat up and took notice.
Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina, 43, and Minister of Health and Social Development Tatyana Golikova, 41, have created what one newspaper called a "mini-sensation" in the country's overwhelmingly male-dominated political scene.
The two have raised the proportion of female ministers to male in the Russian government from zero to one in ten - still only a drop in the bucket compared the female presence in many European governments. In France, one in three ministers are women.
"It's not the number that counts: appointing young women is very symbolic," said sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya, an expert on the Russian elite.
"It's quite modern, especially if you look at the heads of party lists for December 2 legislative elections, which smell like mothballs," she said.
Russia's highly anticipated parliamentary polls will renew a lower house of parliament where only 9.5% of the deputies are women - compared to 53% of the Russian population as a whole.
"Putin has said for a long time that he wanted more women (in government). This is a deliberate decision," Kryshtanovskaya said.
The evening news on state-controlled Channel One television seemed to support her claim. A story on Nabiullina and Golikova led the broadcast, showing a row of politicians praising the two - and bringing flowers to their offices.
The camera cut back and forth between the two, contrasting the dour, serious Nabiullina, clad entirely in black, with the pretty Golikova, her coiffed blonde hair spilling over her shoulders.
Business and political analysts have hailed the choices both of Nabiullina, who headed a respected economic think tank in Moscow, and Golikova, who served as deputy finance minister.
'An excellent choice'
In a society where gender roles remain rigidly separated, however, not everyone has been happy with the appointment.
"The fact that there are women in the government shows that Putin wants to keep criticism of the government to an absolute minimum," Communist Party leader Ivan Melnikov said - reflecting women's traditional role in much of Russian society as objects of adulation rather than political actors.
Still, Higher School of Economics professor Marina Baskakova called the appointments "a great step forward" for Russia, which she said lags behind not only Western Europe in terms of gender equality, but ex-Soviet neighbours such as Moldova and Kazakhstan.
"It was an excellent choice. They are very competent women, and were not chosen because they are women," she said.
"This will be a psychological jolt. Women will tell themselves: 'She succeeded, I will succeed too,'" she said.
- AFP
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