In Moscow in 2022, female interest in “male vacancies” increased by an average of 40%. The number of resumes increased in the fields of transportation, informatics and construction. Women in Russia mostly posted CVs by occupation as mechanic (+85%), crane operator (+73%) and plasterer (+72%).
Great news. Is this an IT “male gap”?.. Is this not a plaster for women?
In our patriarchal East, in the good old nostalgic fashion, occupations are divided into men and women. Such exoticism in the news is not possible anywhere else.
By profession, women are teachers, telephone operators, secretaries, cashiers, marketers. Men are businessmen, builders, crane operators, alcoholics.
We also have men’s and women’s meals here. There are male and female series.
Once upon a time, there were two women who lived a terrible life, during the war they changed the patchwork quilts at night so that the children would not starve, and they dug ditches during the day. They were 65, they looked 90. Their husbands died from vodka, “accepted the norm,” as the people say. They worked … as railway workers, of course, there were no peasants in this village, sober, industrious. They walked with hammers of great size and forged bolts of great size. So what to do? Railways were repaired. Mordyukova told Markova, “You are a fool, and even though your husband is dead, he is a fool, and his brother-in-law is a fool, and your goat is a fool.” “Breath, breath, breath until your eyes pop out. You’ve been on this road for 40 years and you’re going to die with your damn hammer.”
This is 1994-1995. The first social advertising. Production of the first channel. With Mordyukova and Rimma Markova.
Then Mordyukova, sitting on the rails in her peculiar style, drifted from the woman’s tears to the dashing Cossack enthusiasm: “The Cossack, on a faithful horse, went far, far to a foreign land …” – and went to hammer the bolt into everything. And nothing. End of the film.
Many of these paradoxical social short films turned out to be. 21 pcs. I wanted to prove something to the World that Ernst produced. Filmed by Denis Evstigneev. There are very few directing jobs. With the most stellar cast imaginable, this social series is the highlight. But even professionals do not remember more than three episodes. But Mordyukova and Markova, two female travelers in orange robes and hammers, came into my memory – it was the history of this country, the history of gender discrimination.
And these two female travelers became the image of the whole country.
There is no “male profession” in Israel, for example, if you just say it out loud they will laugh at the archaic. In Israel, these borders have been erased. Here, both the drivers and dump truck drivers are women. And in dresses with heels – men. A whole carnival is here.
But there are no female travelers here. And women don’t get into the construction business. Why. The work is hard, dirty… A friend has worked at a construction site all his life and has not seen a single woman.
No, there was only one, despite 20 years of experience. Svetlana. He was roaring like a bear. But he went to work. Putty and painting did. She was one.
In Russia there is a stubborn phenomenon that can be called “babification”. Baptism of the population, vacancies, baptism of education. There are several reasons, and not all of them, God forbid, have to do with the mentality of the Russian people.
First: the decline of the male population, the disappearance of independent, passionate types of non-conformist men. Even the phrase “real man” speaks in the red book of this genre.
Second: liberating and changing the role functions of women. The spectrum of women’s functions is expanding significantly everywhere. (Previously, the woman either gave birth or fed, nothing else).
Third: immigration. Due to the mass migration of the rural population to the cities where life is easier, women have started to take part in non-female activities.
Fourth: the disappearance of the institution of “grandmothers”, which at least still remembers the male plot. They could no longer transmit it—but at least they remembered it was there.
The male population once had its own position and actively asserted it. Revolution and war reduced the number of “real” men: those who were not killed were imprisoned. A large number of people were excluded from active work, and then – as compensation – the following interesting phenomenon emerged: an active emphasis on new opportunities for women in Soviet society. Even the dissidents and the stars of the opposition movement were mostly women. Passionate men disappeared. Passionate women emerged.
But there is also a passionate “male profession” after all.
By the way, one of the problems that befalls us is the upbringing of a full woman: in the family, in kindergarten, at school – women grew up everywhere. Male stereotypes, male practices were not transferred. Or they were transferred in certain situations: in the garden, on the street, in semi-criminal areas, in areas affected by status – a normal villager can be found more often among street people or those who have passed from prison.
“True colonels” remained only in folklore. In films about officers before the revolution. “St. Petersburg aristocracy is not yet going away. Or there, one’s own dignity, this inviolability of the individual … “. The phrase does not go: “Let me take over” – or: “It is difficult for you, let …”. And the phrase: “I led you, I will answer everything ” – at the throat with a stake. And so: “My place is not valuable to me, our work is valuable” – it turns out only in pieces.
Several generations of men did not have the opportunity for education. And female upbringing set the standard for the perfect girl, as obedient as she can, she does everything she is told, does not have her own opinion – women’s upbringing methods have also spread to boys, feminine, subordinate, obedient, henpecked, then everyone knows . ..
In general, liberation went its own way in Russia. In fact, why leave emancipation behind, since everything is in its own way? Woman is male, man is female. They’re all childish. At the same time, the lack of equality was fraught with mutual distrust and stereotypes.
And the news about how women occupy male positions is doubly funny. On the one hand, this is an archaic division. On the other hand, nowhere are so many men working in the most difficult positions, I’m a horse, I’m a bull, I’m a woman and a man and that’s it.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.