Motherhood in the Discourses of State Family and Demographic Policy in Modern Russia: Normative, Public and Scientific Agendas

Abstract

The study of modern motherhood is of particular relevance if the perspective shifts from purely medical and psychological topics towards socio-­political analysis. To see a mother not only as a reproductive unit or a subject of child care, but as a full-fledged participant in social relations with her own specific needs, potential and practices, means taking a step towards adequate measures to support Russian women. Turning to the concept of “state feminism” as a research optics allows us to assess the discursive content of the official, dominant position on the issue of motherhood in Russia. Specifying ways to embody the category of “motherhood” in public policy and public consciousness requires attention to three groups of markers that allow us to study the specific dynamics of this phenomenon: normative, public and scientific discourses. As a result, it was found that Russian “state feminism” is syncretic in terms of ideological patterns that determine its content. Thus, at the normative level, traditionalist orientations coexist with the problematization of gender asymmetry and social feminist trends. Public discourse reveals several variants of the “gender contract” or patterns of interaction between mothers and their children, most of which form complex social expectations that put a woman in a difficult position. Scientific discourse is more often focused on the study of the demographic aspects of mothers’ identity than on the analysis of their cultural, religious or psychological differences, including minor parameters of physicality, sexuality, and gender identity. Authors do not always strive to study the analyzed reality as complex and heterogeneous, allowing for reductionist approaches. In some cases, the theoretical materials are emphatically scholastic or speculative. It can be concluded that a universal doctrine that would express universal interests or claim to resolve all contradictions is impossible, which prompts further analysis of the real social practices of mothers as a complex characteristic of an unstable personal identity.