Young Russian Women on Procreation, Trafficking, and Prostitution: Myths, Reality, and Policy Implic

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Young Russian Women on Procreation, Trafficking,
and Prostitution Myths, Reality, and Policy
Implications

• Sarah E. Mendelson (CSIS) and
• Theodore P. Gerber (University of
  Wisconsin-Madison)
• July 23, 2008

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Agenda What do women think?

• Why are they not having more babies?
• What do they know about human trafficking?
• What about prostitution?
• Experiences of harassment in the workplace and
  educational institutions
• Not covered today but in the survey

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Fill The Knowledge Gap

• Conventional wisdom, even myths, drive many
  views of these issues
• Anecdotal sense of how widespread particular
  views and experiences are
• Our benchmark survey data on knowledge, attitude
  and experience challenge these assumptions
• Enables better policy interventions

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Benchmark Survey

• April 2007 Four focus groups
• Summer 2007 Follow up in-depth interviews
• March-April 2008 Pretest of 20 and Survey of
  2,004 women 16-34 years old
• Supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation

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I. On Family Formation

• Russias demographic crisis
• Putin And now, the main thing, what we see as
  the main thing.
• Voice from audience Love.
• Putin Right. The Defense Ministry knows what is
  the most important thing. Really, I am going to
  speak about love, women, and children Applause
  family, and Russias most acute problem today,
  demography Applause.
• Russian President Vladimir Putins annual state
  of the nation address, May10, 2006

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Women and Fertility

• Why are Russian women not having more babies in
  general?
• Economic, socio-cultural, policy explanations
• Fear of losing job?
• Role of declining marriage rates
• Maternal capital policy
• Women receive 250,000 rubles when second child
  turns 3
• For 1/1/07-1/4/08 Government reporting a real
  demographic explosion
• Improved economic situation?
• More women of child bearing years?
• Or impact of policy? What more could be done?

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Conventional Wisdom on Family Formation in Russia

• Context Demographic crisis clear but not what
  drives family formation decision making.
• Women dont want to have children?
• Afraid of losing their jobs?
• Possible to incentivize procreation?
• Patriotism?
• Holiday?
• Pay them?
• Maternity capital
• addressing the problem?
• totally irrelevant?

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Unmet fertility demand

• Most women in Russia today have one child
• The modal number of desired children in our
  sample is 2 children
• Only 11.5 want to have no children at all
• Among those with one child, only 30 do not want
  more

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How important is each of the following for a
woman to be happy in life?
100
3
5
9
11
9
11
13
90
21
80
21
26
29
70
35
43
Hard to say
60
Not at all important
Not very important
50
46
Somewhat important
43
Very important
33
40
Extremely important
38
33
30
43
20
26
25
24
10
19
15
0
kids
close friends
good education
successful
successful career
attractive
husband
appearance
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What are the policy implications?

• More complicated than expected
• The good news (from a demographic perspective)
• Women view children as central to happiness
• Main obstacles are economic, not normative
• Fear of losing jobs not main issue
• Not experiencing benefits from the economic boom
• Impact of maternal capital so far weak
• Government has the right idea economic and
  housing concerns are main brake on fertility
• But benefit package not big enough to make the
  difference
• Need to address housing shortage and continuing
  economic uncertainty
• Address the problem of husbands/fathers!

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II. On Human Trafficking

• Movement of people either through force, fraud,
  or coercion for the express purposes of
  enslavement
• Forced prostitution involves being sold as
  chattel, stripped of passport, and forced to pay
  off a bogus debt to their traffickers.
• UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish
  Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
  Children

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Policy Context

• US State Department placed Russia on Tier Two
  Watch List for the last five years
• Viewed as major source, destination, and transit
• According to the 2008 TIP Report, little to no
  funding for victims assistance programs
• No funding to NGOs working on anti-trafficking
  programs
• Legislation pending but stuck since 2003

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Conventional Wisdom concerning Trafficking in
Russia

• Russian women have never heard of this
  phenomenon/do not know what it is?
• Made up by foreigners?
• Trafficking involves upwards of 10,000 women sold
  a year from Russia?
• Russian women are easily duped into trafficking
  through advertisements for work abroad?

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Fewer than 2 would answer such an advertisement
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Figure 4. Which statement do you agree with most
(about the frequency of trafficking)?
Hard to say
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Currently, many Russian go abroad
voluntarily and then are forced to
work as prostitutes against their will

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This happens very rarely to Russian
women today
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Figure 5. Which statement do you agree with most
(about the seriousness of the
problem)?
Hard to say
9
It is a secondary problem
13
So called "trade in humans" is a very
serious problem for Russia today
78
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Policy implications

• Russian women are aware and concerned about
  trafficking
• Its time for the government and society to do
  more to combat trafficking
• What would that look like?
• Message to the authorities
• Pass laws
• Support NGOs
• Create witness protection and survivor service
  programs

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• 8 out of 10 young women in Russia believe that
  human trafficking is a very serious problem.

What are you doing to stop it?
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• 8 out of 10 young women in Russia believe that
  human trafficking is a very serious problem.

What are you doing to stop it?
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Message to HR NGOs

• Not only government that needs to engage
• Where are the mainstream HR NGOs?
• The HR community is in somewhat of a demographic
  crisis
• Need to engage young Russians on issues they are
  concerned about

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III. On Prostitution

• Throughout the 1990s, scholars and activists
  wrote about the permissive views of Russian women
  to prostitution.
• 1990s study claimed that 60 of Russian female
  high school students would exchange sex for hard
  currency
• This conventional wisdom lives on today
• The sexualization of Russian culture has both
  sensationalized and normalized prostitution,
  causing many women to seek it as an acceptable
  form of work in the face of economic hardship.
• Katherine P. Averginos, From Vixen to Victim
  The Sensationalization and Normalization of
  Prostitution in Post-Soviet Russia. Vestnik.
  2006.

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Conventional Wisdom and Myths regarding
Prostitution

• Russian women buy into the Pretty Woman or
  Interdevochka (1989) image of prostitution
• Russian women see prostitution as a viable, even
  attractive type of work

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Average rating of attractiveness of professions
for respondent
(1least attractive, 10most attractive)
7.00
6.3
6.2
6.00
5.0
5.00
4.1
4.0
4.00
3.7
3.3
3.3
3.00
2.00
1.2
1.00
0.00
Banker
Doctor
TV reporter
Biologist
Cashier
Librarian
Waitress
Farmer
Prostitute
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Additional Research

• Family Formation
• What do men think?
• What role do views concerning traditional gender
  roles play in decisions women make?
• Trafficking
• Internal trafficking? Labor trafficking?
• How aware is the general population?

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