The women’s movement in Yakutia has been 97 years old, a lot has changed during this time – representatives of the beautiful half find themselves in different professions, work on a par with men, embody seemingly unrealistic dreams in their own business, become scientists, pose problems of the development of the republic at the Russian level. And yet women, mothers remain the main keepers of the family hearth. The chairman of the Union of Women’s Organizations in the Republic Angelika Andreeva told the correspondent of YSIA on the eve of the XV Congress of Women of Yakutia about how the women’s movement has changed in the republic over the past few years, what problems modern women have and how they are solved, whether modern trends are ruining the continuity of generations and family traditions.
– Anzhelika Egorovna, tell us how the women’s movement in Yakutia has changed over the past few years and what has influenced it?
“The history of the women’s movement has started since 1925, and this year marks the 97th anniversary. Of course, a great transformation has taken place during this time. If earlier our women were uneducated, they were not allowed to work in some professions, today a modern woman is highly educated and can work on a par with men, there are women candidates of sciences, scientists – the areas where a woman can realize herself now are almost limitless.”
It is in our republic that we can say that a woman is very responsible and not indifferent to everything that happens in society, despite the fact that she is a mother, grandmother, daughter and wife. In addition to her main job, studies, she is always interested in public affairs, so there are a lot of women with an active lifestyle in our uluses and cities of the republic. This proves that over the past 6 years, since the last Women’s Congress in 2016, there have been more public organizations. For example, large public organizations such as the Open Forum “Girlfriends”, the social movement “Mothers of Russia”, the youth wing of the Union of women’s organizations began to work actively. All of them are completely in step with the times. And literally in the last two years, during the pandemic, we have already won two grants for the digital transformation of the women’s councils of Yakutia, 5 years ago we did not even talk about it, but we did not even think about it. And the unifying link between all organizations is the historically formed Union of Women’s Organizations.
Recently we met with the head of the republic Aisen Sergeevich Nikolaev. He fully agreed with us and said that a woman today should study professionally and not just to get a diploma once and one profession. After all, the modern world dictates continuous learning, including digital transformation, to acquire new skills or professions. And in this process, a woman should adapt most flexibly. Of course, it is much easier for the younger generation to do this, but it will be difficult for women of the middle and older generations. Therefore, over the past 5 years, our women’s public organizations and the Institute of public organizations in general have learned how to participate correctly and win grants specifically for socially significant projects. But before, they did all the projects, events, contests for moms and fathers themselves, looked for sponsors on their own, and so on. And this is a sharp jump.
If five years ago they simply gave a subsidy for the organization of events, now every public organization, every woman who heads a women’s club in a village or, for example, a public organization for working with children with disabilities, today, as it were, is obliged to undergo training, learn how to design projects for a grant, meet modern realities, which our resource centers “Creation”, “Akfa” teach. By the way, there is also a competition for the grant of the head of the republic, which receives a lot of applications every year. And I can say for sure that somewhere 30-50% of the participants are public organizations headed by women of our republic.—
— After all, you have noted that modern times dictate their own trends. And women are now actively pursuing their interests, occupying various professional niches. It happens that some people put career growth in the first place. How does all this affect the continuity of generations, does it not affect the preservation of family traditions, because from time immemorial a woman has been the keeper of the family hearth?
“Indeed, some men say about the Union: “Oh, I see, so you are feminists.” I say, we are not feminists, we are for the preservation of the family, motherhood, fatherhood and the preservation of family traditions – this is our main goal.”
We even associate the grants we have won with these foundations. For example, we implemented a grant “Made by mom’s hands” and for moms who are taking care of a child, we conducted psychology trainings, told them how to take care of a child, where to go. Okay, we gave birth earlier and turned to mothers, grandmothers, asked out of concern sometimes it even seems ridiculous questions. And the modern mom has much more opportunities to learn about the proper care of the baby from professionals.
We also told you how to get additional professions online. Let’s say, while the child is sleeping, you can listen to some lectures. And according to the results of our project, you can open your own business on Instagram. A lot of moms sew, knit, make different crafts. And we taught them how to turn a hobby into their own business without leaving a child. Imagine, out of 100 trained somewhere about 10% of moms have opened their own business, become self-employed, receive additional income to their family.
When I meet with young female leaders, I always say: “Girls, of course, you are great, you are all smart, but the most important thing for a girl and the first goal is to get married and have a child, get a profession, and only then, when the family takes place, you can make your career.” A person already knows at an older age that the most important thing in life is family, these are children. But sometimes you think about it too late, so, you are a candidate of sciences – all this is fine. But as you get older, you wonder why I gave birth to two children, and not three or four. We conducted a lot of online trainings and that all the women who took place said that the most important thing in life is a family, only then a career and professional qualities.
– Everyone enthusiastically accepted the news about the announcement by the head of Yakutia in the republic of 2022 as the Year of the Mother. What events are you planning to hold this year?
— We are very grateful to the decision of the head, because, it turns out, in the history of no subject of the Russian Federation has ever declared the Year of the Mother, only Mother’s Day was celebrated in Russia. But Mother’s Day was also introduced for the first time in Yakutia, when the first president of the republic, Mikhail Efimovich Nikolaev, established it in 1993. I then worked at the Yakutsk State University, since 2003 in the Ministry of Youth Policy as deputy Minister, then since 2006 in the Committee on Family and Childhood Affairs as deputy chairman, all these years we have been holding Mother’s Day and contests for young families. Anastasia Nikolaevna Bozhedonova, Valentina Ivanovna Kirillina, Svetlana Efimovna Nikolaeva were at the origins of family policy. Then there was a plan to improve the status of women mothers, including state support for large families, and all this policy will receive a new impetus in the Year of the Mother. Also over the years, our women deputies Feodosia Gabysheva, Elena Golomareva, social activists Lena Ivanova, Olga Starostina have raised issues of developing a whole program “Children of the Arctic”.
Aisen Sergeyevich very well connected the Year of the Mother with the 100th anniversary of the republic. He said: “What is important for every person is, of course, family and mother.” When the decree came out, everyone was pleasantly surprised, women from our districts immediately started calling, saying how nice it was. “It’s about us! This is a very important event!” they exclaimed. And our most important task is to help young moms.
“To be honest, the institution of the family is being destroyed today. There are a lot of civil marriages, and what used to seem so far away to us, namely various Western propaganda, the devaluation of family traditions – everything is already becoming known. But in a separate Russia and in a separate republic, we must preserve our national traditions, preserve the Russian family. Although they say that “a woman will stop a horse at a gallop, she will enter a burning hut,” but in fact, always, always in both Russian and Yakut philosophy, the most important thing is a man-earner and a family.”
We have developed a number of measures together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. So, at the end of the year, the Forum of Mothers of Yakutia will be held. We suggested that schools still allocate two hours a week to ethics and psychology of family life, subjects on how to prepare young girls for family life. Of course, in many ways it is necessary to educate children through schools. But again, it depends on the family and on the woman herself. When I meet young girls, I always say: “I understand that young people need only 5 minutes to get divorced now, pay the fee and that’s it. But the biggest work is to save your family, to maintain warm and kind relations with your husband, boyfriend, father of your children. In many ways, a woman always initiates, believing that a man does not pay attention to her and so on. Only the wisest woman can save a marriage, and only the wisest woman can elevate her man, convey her thoughts and ideas to him and present it so that he himself makes decisions.” This is not what we were taught, this is life wisdom. And I would like to pay more attention to the older generation of mothers, our mothers with many children, heroines, to pay tribute to them just in the Year of the Mother. And so that young fathers feel responsible for their wife, for their children, and the goal in the Year of the Mother is to raise the status and prestige of fatherhood. When I made this speech in the districts of the republic, the men in the halls applauded, it says that we should cover everyone with our attention: both mothers and fathers.
This year, I think the state should pay attention to the family economy – this is a subsidiary farm. During the pandemic, we realized that it is very important to preserve the health of the family and its well-being. And we eat every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and who thinks about it? Of course, a woman, a mother. Therefore, today women are acutely raising the issue of supporting the family economy. Or, as an example, our women united during forest fires, helped men, cooked food on the ground around the clock, organized food collection. A woman is always on guard and helps men, fathers to preserve well-being in our society. And, of course, we would like to talk more about the ideology of family values, relationships between men and women, motherhood and fatherhood, so that there would be more contests specifically for mothers, so that they would feel attention to themselves, pay attention to women who are in a difficult situation.
“Moral support is very important for mothers, especially young ones who are in a difficult life situation. Sometimes it’s worth just talking, giving hope, which will change the inner state of a woman. If a woman is given this, she will perk up, blossom and be ready for incredible achievements.”
– Tell us about the work in the Arctic, remote areas of the republic, because there often needs a separate approach to solving problems.
– Indeed, we have a women’s council in every district. We have very difficult northern regions, it is there that we need to conduct high-quality medical examinations, because from there they can very rarely go to district centers or the capital. It is necessary to provide them with narrow specialists. It is necessary to resume sanatorium-resort treatment, as it was before – “Mother and child”, when they fully paid for the ticket, travel at work. Of course, this requires a lot of money, but residents of the northern territories are a special category.
— One of the largest events in the Year of the Mother is the Congress of Women of Yakutia. Tell us, how is the preparation for this event going?
– The Congress is held once every five years. The main organizers are the Union of Women’s Organizations and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Social Communications of the Republic. The chairman of the organizing committee is Olga Balabkina. And, of course, the Congress is being prepared by legendary people in the history of the women’s movement – Anastasia Bozhedonova, Evgenia Mikhailova, Feodosia Gabysheva, Valentina Kirillina, Antonina Grigorieva, Lilia Vinokurova, Lena Ivanova, Galina Vasilyeva, Albina Cherepanova, Oksana Novgorodova and many others. According to the charter, we were supposed to hold it last year, but due to the pandemic, we postponed it to 2022. We are very happy about this, because in the year of the 100th anniversary of our republic, such an important event will take place. Basically, strategic platforms will be held in an online format. There will be 13 negotiation platforms, ranging from education, culture, and healthcare. Women will raise social issues and problems. We would like women from all corners of the republic to speak on a par with public figures and scientists. In the Union of Women’s Organizations, we discussed this topic a lot, as a result, we developed a concept, which included the goals of the Congress, explained in which direction we are going in the next five years.
In the history of Yakutia, women have always been the driving force and have always helped in difficult moments for the republic, whatever happens. In this regard, we must pay tribute to the elected delegates of the Congress, there will be 500 of them from all uluses. Delegates are elected locally, they have been contributing to the life of their district and republic on a voluntary basis for 5 years. The plenary session will be held in person, due to restrictions, only 200 people will take part. We will adopt a resolution for the next five years – what we undertake, what we ask from the leadership of the republic and the country, and what course we will continue to support.
There will also be elections of a new composition of the governing body of the plenum of the Union of Women’s Organizations of Yakutia. Now there is a historically established succession of generations, and my motto in life is: “Remember the past, create the present and think about the future.” And we will just pass on our views to the younger generation so that they will already take our business into their own hands and bring their own ideas to the further development of the women’s movement. But, of course, in my report I will definitely tell you how we see the future in five years, how motherhood and science will develop, what responsibility women should take on themselves and what we will do.
The Far Eastern Women’s Forum will be held as part of the Congress. Women from the Amur Region, Khabarovsk, Primorsky Krai, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Magadan and so on will participate in the online format. We will discuss a very good, completely new project in Russia, the National Social Initiative. It concerns specifically targeted assistance and new mechanisms to improve the quality of services and services in the social sphere. At the plenary session, we will adopt a final document, where we will outline what women of the Far East need today, what problems are there and how to solve them in the next few years.
— Are experts and speakers invited to the Congress and Forum from outside the region?
– Guests from Mongolia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Buryatia, the Jewish Autonomous Okrug will come to the strategic sessions in an online format, there will be participants from Nizhny Novgorod, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and even from Arctic countries. There will be many speakers both at the Russian and international level. We have a separate strategic session dedicated to international cooperation with foreign speakers, as well as a “Woman in Science” session with speakers from Russia. Thus, the event turns out to be practically Russian-international. We will post all the information on the event’s website.RF.
– Angelika Egorovna, what are the most acute problems that Yakut women have been posing in the last few years?
– In socio-economic terms, there is a good dynamics of growth and adaptation of social policy in our republic, republican and federal funds are allocated specifically to support motherhood and families with children. But still, in the top problems in the last five years, women include health. The most important thing in a pandemic is to preserve the health of the family, women, children and men. This is generally a separate topic. The second problem is employment, that is, retraining, retraining, and so on. Here we conduct free courses on digitalization for everyone. And thirdly, working with families who find themselves in a difficult life situation includes alcoholization of women, irresponsible parenting, juvenile delinquency. We also had an extremely pressing problem of online education. The parent community came out to us, was outraged, now everything is gradually coming back to normal. I am also the chairman of the Commission on Social policy, demography, protection of family and childhood of the Public Chamber of Yakutia. And when problematic issues arise in society, we consider them from all sides when interacting with responsible authorities.
— And in conclusion, your wishes to all the women of Yakutia on the eve of the spring holiday.
— Of course, first of all, in our difficult time, I want to wish good health not only to all women and mothers, but also to keep their children and men healthy. Spring will come very soon, and in this regard, I wish everyone happiness, love, good luck, family well-being and that no difficulties could spoil the spring mood.
