Ethnographic Understandings of Gender and Economic Transition in Siberia: Implications for Planners and Policy Makers

Abstract

Economic transition has been defined by neo-liberal restructuring policies and understandings. Using ethnographic data from Omsk, Russia, I examine structural adjustment policy implementation in the context of socially constructed gender norms. These policies have complicated implications for women and men's economic survival. The ethnographic understandings gained from interviews with women provide vital information that would improve planning processes in Omsk. For example, using an economic gardening approach to support women's small business development and workforce development targeting survivors of violence would advance women's economic self-sufficiency. I suggest that if planners use ethnographic understandings they will be able to more effectively respond to planning challenges such as poverty, education and health care issues.

Notes

For the purpose of this paper gender is defined as the cultural construction of social roles/norms associated with women and men. While the focus will be on women's gendered roles and lived experiences, relationships between men and women's gendered experiences will be addressed.

For example see Hough's (2001) “The Logic of Economic Reforms in Russia,” where both Siberia and gender are completely unobserved in his analysis of economic reforms in Russia. Sperling's (1999) Organizing Women in Contemporary Russia Engendering Transition exclusively researches women in the European part of Russia.

I was a visiting professor at the State University in the School of International Business for the 2000–2001 academic year through the Civic Education Project.

Dachas are small plots of land, usually just outside of the city, which each family was given during the soviet period, most have build at least a small house for overnight stays during the growing season and some people have sold them.