Gender equality and extension of women rights in Russia
within millennium development goals

6. Out of labour market: economic inequality and poverty

The economic basis for the modern gender inequality is laid by different results of participation in the labour force, difference in wages level, in human capital return for males and females. But apart from this the gender inequality is affected by social and demographic factors. Low females' wages often is not regarded as a serious problem as it is presumed that most females have access to other resources: spouses, other family members and thus can work at lower wages without getting into poor number. Economic inequality in incomes of course may be smoothed at the expense of the inter family redistribution, but it may also intensify. There also may be other income sources apart from wages inequality in access to which will affect the gender inequality.

The report on poverty feminization in Russia Prepared in 2000 on the order from the World bank has settled the trends of female share increase among the poor population²⁵. Taking into account the lesser possibilities offered to females by the labour market the poverty feminization is mainly formed at the expense of the two population groups: pensionaries and incomplete maternal families.

6.1. Pensionaries

The gender structure of Russian population has the most extensive differences in the older ages. The higher death rate and low expected life span of males have led to the fact that there are more females of the higher than capable to work age by almost 2.2 times than males of the higher than capable to work age (20,461,000 and 9,398,000 accordingly in 2002). Or if the commeasurable of 60 and older age groups compared, females exceed males by 1.9 times. Thus, two thirds of the pensionaries are females. At that in the most older ages 75 and older group this domination is much higher: by 3 to 4 times.

According to RF Goskomstat data belonging to pensionaries is not increased poverty risk factor. But high poverty probability affects in the first turn the elder single pensionaries of older than 65, mostly females²⁶. Thus within the age group of older than capable to work age poor females number almost by 3 million exceeds poor males number. As a result, females live longer but due to this they are poorer. One may say that if males lived as long as females do, the scale of gender differences of poverty could have been much lesser. But not due to the fact that the number of poor females would have been lesser, and due to the fact that the number of poor males would have been higher.

The poverty of single female pensionaries of the older age is also distinguished by the extreme forms of its revealing, as having no transfers except their pensions and having lost the physical ability for earnings and keeping of personal subsidiary plot they find themselves among the most needing population groups.

The inequality in access to the resources should be approached in the life span prospects admitting the individual and independent females' rights for resources which could allow them to escape economic subordination and poverty, including the old age period. From this point of view the pension reform providing for transfer to accumulating pension system elements, taking into account the gender gaps in wages, will create an additional old age females position deterioration as compared to males.²⁷

6.2 Broken families

Broken families have less economic possibilities accounting for the dependant burden. And though children number in the family on average is higher in the full families, as compared to the broken families which in overpowering majority are one child families, taking into account the fact that in a half of all full families one child accounts for two parents, the dependant burden in the broken families contributes to getting of the family in the population poverty groups²⁸.

High level of Divorces, extramarital children number growth, widowship growth due to high death rate of males, repeated marriages number decrease - all these factors increase the share of broken families. According to 1994 microcensus data the broken families accounted for 13.4% of all households and 17% of all families with children. At that all maternal broken families with children accounted for 90% of all broken families where one parent lives with children, and paternal - 10%.

Taking into account lesser possibilities of women on the labour market especially in conditions when the family labour burden is very difficult to redistribute among other family members, maternal broken families contribute considerably into the poverty feminization process. The broken families share among the poor is practically 2 times higher than their share among the families as a whole. Unlike the households headed by males the female headed households find themselves in poverty more often due to females' having worse positions at the labour market.

6.3. Marginal strata

The poverty gender aspects analysis is carried out on the basis of Goskomstat data or research databases of RLMS type. But the specialists know very well that such researches do not affect marginal groups: the richest and the poorest. Without taking the poorest, marginals, social bottom into consideration the picture comes out biased, which does not allow to work out an adequate social policy.

In the greatest extent these marginal groups include people having no permanent or determined residency (BOMJ), homeless.

According to evaluations the number of such people in 1996 amounted to 4,200,000²⁹. At that 70% of them are males and 30% are females. The cause of such gender asymmetry is connected to the homelessness reasons structure. Thus in 2002 in St. Petersburg the following homelessness structure was settled³⁰: imprisonment - As all former prisoners are males in overwhelming majority, this predetermines the gender structure of the marginals.

The greatest part of the homelesses have secondary education and the share of homelesses with incomplete secondary education has been indicated to decrease. This happens due to the fact that in 1990s the homelesses was replenished not only by former prisoners but by those who lost their homes due to real estate deals. By professional and qualificational structure they are mostly workers (80%).

The homelesses' bread-winner: - 59% have accidental and temporary earnings, 20% live on their relatives' and acquaintances' means, 14% beg for handout, 11% get pensions and benefits, 7% collect bottles, only 4% have permanent jobs. The 50 year olds and older are in the most hard state: 11% did not have any income at all, 31% had to beg,

The low share of those having permanent jobs is explained by the fact that the enterprises (institutions, organizations) practically do not employ the people having no residency registration and those who lost their homes and registration are dismissed.

The street children are referred to marginals strata too. They are not always homeless but accounting for various circumstances their way of life is mostly connected to the street. Expert evaluations of the street children gender structure show that 20-25% of them are girls, 75-80% are boys.³¹

Thus, at constructing of social policy with an account of gender approaches it is necessary to consider that the gender structure changes in different strata of poor population and the most unprotected and poor strata are mostly represented by males.

6.4. Entrepreneurship and property

The problems of economic inequality cannot be reduced to the problems of the poverty only. If even there are no gender disproportions among the poor population, it does not mean that no gender inequality problems of access to economic resources exist among the poor population. The gender disproportions among the middle class or among the rich population strata also lay the basis of gender inequality. The analysis of differences in access to economic resources is very much complicated by two reasons: Firstly, statistics and satisfactory research data about property gender aspects in Russia are absent. Secondly, as a rule the information about the property position is based on the household data and there is no information of distribution of access to the property and the resources within the household. Thus for example, the middle class research in Russia have not revealed any gender asymmetry mostly because of the fact that the households included into the chosen strata of the middle class were mostly represented by full families³².

Indirect information about the access to the property may represent the data about entrepreneurship gender structure. The expert evaluations usually indicate that among the entrepreneurs 25 to 30% are women but "entrepreneur" notion is not distinctly determined, and the changing of the gender structure much depends on which determination is used. Entrepreneurs may embrace both employers using employed labour and owning considerable financial resources, and independently participating in the labour force and whose income level may be comparable to the employees as distinct from the employers. Goskomstat data allow to single out among the entrepreneurs employers and independently participating in the labour force. The employers' share among males is two times higher than among females, and independents share is close in both gender groups. I.e. within the groups of entrepreneurs who have considerable incomes males are more represented.

The RLMS data permit to evaluate the participation of males and females in the property of the enterprizes at which they work. The males share being the owners of their enterprises is by 20-30% higher, than females share, (but it must be indicated that males and females, owners of enterprises, share has been decreasing within 1990s).

The RLMS data show that males also own great share of property. Among them the share of those who owns more than 10% of the enterprise almost two times higher than among females.

Thus females not only represented to lesser degree within the entrepreneur strata but own much lesser share of the entrepreneur's property.

The KOMKON (КОМКОН) company data, permits to analyse the gender structure of the property. It carries out annual representative researches of Russia population by consumer behaviour and a wide range of social and economic problems. This data shows that for the respondents round all Russia gender asymmetry of savings and property types is indicated only by the following items: investments into own enterprise, currency, commodities for further resale.

But for Moscow quite another situation is observed. Save for the real estate and holdings in the banks by all other items of property types and savings the advantage is kept by the males.

At that it should be taken into account that real estates sizes was not specified in the inquiry, and after the compartments privatization and taking into account country houses with plots of 0.06 hectare owning the most part of the Russian population (males and females) are real estate owners. More than that taking into account that among the pensioners females' number is greater than males' the compartments privatization has led to relatively greater real estate owning by females. But the size and the quality of this real estate may be quite different.

In Moscow the male share owning the shares of their enterprises is 3 times higher than the female share, owning shares of other enterprises - 2 times higher, shares of financial enterprises - 2.5 times higher.

I. e. in Moscow where the concentration of financial resources, owners is much higher than around the country as a whole, relatively higher male property concentration is observed.

So one may make a conclusion that gender economic inequality affects the access to the economic resources problems reveals in unequal owning of the property. The females havig lost at the start of the economic reforms at the enterprises privatisation, government property, the main access to which received the males, the heads of the enterprises and organizations. Females have less and less possibilities to enter the rich population strata by some other except the marriage market way.

One may assume that this sort of inequality will more and more negatively affect the females rights and possibilities equality, female entreneurship development. As absence of property leads to worse possibilities in getting credits, problems arise connected to the necessity of creation and provision of mechanisms of insurance of financial risks for female entrepreneurship support. The gender inequality in the property will negatively affect the provision of Equality in political representation of males and females, as the political structures in the first place provide the interests of the major economical owners.

One mustn't hope that the lesser extent of female involvement into business, entrepreneurship, can be corrected by an evolution way within the nearest time. As the development goes in contemporary Russia of market economy more and more financial barriers accumulate for an own business opening. Having lost at the start during the privatization process and initial capital accumulation the females may fall back still more in the access to the economic resources, property. In this situation protectionist measures are necessary contributory to female entrepreneurship development and lowering the entering barriers into business for them.

Outside the limits of the labour market the social and demographic factors increase the gender inequality. Women have more probability of coming to the poor groups of the population, while the wealth and the economic resources are mainly concentrated in the men's hands. At the same time, men are in a greater degree represented both among the rich groups and the poorest, marginal groups. Considering this fact, social and economic policy oriented on the reduction of the gender inequality should be an addressing one and thus can not be unidirectional and only oriented on overcoming the social-economic consequences for women.