Amherst Center for Russian Culture Samantha Berkhead, The Moscow Times: "'Bear With It, My Beauty': Gender Imbalance and Toxic Masculinity in Wartime Russia"

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has accelerated the country's years-long crackdown on freedoms and rights. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Kremlin's wartime push for "traditional values," which has seen both men and women increasingly expected to conform to patriarchal gender roles-- with grim consequences.

This lecture will provide an overview of the current landscape of feminism, women's rights and gender dynamics in today's Russia. It will trace the trajectory from the gradual backsliding of equality seen over the past decade to the current full-scale crackdown on feminist activists, soldiers' mothers' committees and anti-domestic violence groups seen during the war in Ukraine. It will discuss how Russian women and men alike are negatively impacted by the Kremlin's push for "traditional" gender roles-- and what is being done to safeguard women's rights and protections amid the war.

Samantha Berkhead is the senior editor for The Moscow Times. She joined The Moscow Times in 2019 and lived in Russia from that year until the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At MT, she has reported on everything from Russian women's issues to the Russian Orthodox Church to the resurgent popularity of esoterics. She has also worked as a freelance Russia correspondent for Britain's Times and The Sunday Times since 2021.