Russian Women who Left in 2022 More Often than Men Driven by Political Considerations, Kartushina Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 22 – While there are no comprehensive statistics about the flight of Russians from their country after Putin began his expanded war against Ukraine and there are no reliable data about the number of women and the number of men in this flow, it is still possible to draw some important conclusions about their differences, Kristina Kartushina says.

            The Posle journalist has interviewed four women who left Russia at that time and concludes that women were “usually driven by political conviction alone” whereas men were often motivated by “the immediate threat of being drafted into military service” (posle.media/article/politics-work-and-care-in-womens-exile).

            Kartushina says that many observers have suggested that women who have left remain “politically disengaged after relocating” and that those who did leave “typically” did so with a financially secure partner.” But neither of these stereotypical images holds up upon examination.

            On the one hand, both before leaving and after doing so, she continues, women have tended to be more politically active than men; and on the other, they often are “more economically vulnerable, face greater obstacles in the labor market, and have narrower professional opportunities” than men.

            Her conversations with the four dispel the myths and show that the women of the latest Russian emigration are quite different than the men as far as their experiences before and after leaving Russia are concerned and that they merit closer observation because of these distinctions.