Putin: Russian Women Must Produce More Children

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is pushing the women of his nation to prove their patriotism through giving birth to as many babies as they can to rebuild the nation's population.

 

Russian feminists and human rights advocates say his demands are hindering equal rights and protections, but the nation's officials are telling the country's women to start delivering babies at the age of 18, The Washington Post reported.

 

Last November, Putin told ultraconservative religious and political figures at the State Kremlin Palace that many of the nation's grandmothers and great-grandmothers had "seven or eight children or maybe even more" and that Russia "should preserve and revive these wonderful traditions."

 

Russian feminists say that with Putin trying to return Russia to superpower status, his policies are also rolling back women's rights as they are being told to ignore their education or having a career to have children.

 

Russia has had a low birth rate for years, but now, with the war still raging in Ukraine, Putin is tying an effort to increase the country's childbirth rates by declaring the matter one of national security.

 

Making sure Russians have "as many children as possible," Putin has declared, is "the underlying goal of our state policy."

 

As part of the effort, Putin has also restored the 1944 Soviet "Heroine Mother" award, honoring women who are mothers of 10 or more children, along with the "Order of Parental Glory.'

 

On May 30, he held a video conference with nine families across Russia who were given such awards.

 

Putin has also declared 2024 as the "Year of the Family," including returning a Soviet competition called "Come On, Girls!"

 

In it, young women compete in categories such as making the best soup, vacuuming, dancing, singing a folk song, or answering questions about kitchen chores.

 

And last March, Tatiana Golikova declared at a youth festival that the correct age for women to give birth is from 18-24, because the sooner a first child is born, "the earlier the second and third will be born."

 

Meanwhile, women who embody the image of traditional womanhood, through having several children, are being promoted to positions of high authority.

 

One includes national children's ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova, the mother of 10 children, five of whom are adopted.

 

The International Criminal Court has accused her and Putin of war crimes over forcing Ukrainian children to be relocated.

 

There are other prominent women who back Putin's childbirth agenda, such as Yekaterina Mizulina, the daughter of a Russian senator and head of the Safe Internet League.

 

She said in an interview that she does not think about feminism, as Russian women believe men should come first.

 

"Many women in Russia feel fine if they’re deputy to someone. They don’t want to be in charge of something. This is our character," she said.

 

Mizulina added that countries make mistakes when they put women in "weird positions like minister of defense."

 

Meanwhile, even with many of Russia's men away fighting the war in Ukraine, the women's participation in the labor force remains at 48.8%, almost unchanged from 48.7% in January 2022, the month before the war started.

 

Russia's protections for women have also been on the decline, however, including with the decriminalization of domestic violence in 2017.

A request to interview Putin on the issue has been denied, but his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, government’s social policies are designed to increase the nation's population and reflect the will of the people.

 

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