Paul Kindlon
The Duran
Contrary to popular Western belief, Russia is actually leading the world in women empowerment and does not suffer from homophobia.
When Russia's Elvira Nabiullina was named European central banker of 2016, while reading an article on this story and checking the comments section, I noticed several facetious compliments such as "Russia is finally catching up in the area of gender equality". Talk about inaccurate observations...
There is a persistent tendency in the West - and in particular, the US - to view Russia as being somehow "behind the times" when it comes to basic human rights. This mistaken view is mostly due to two factors: 1) A lack of understanding of Russian history and 2) A lack of understanding of Russian culture. Let's address these factors while examining two specific areas of concern.
Many Americans have a strongly-held ethnocentric belief that their country was - and is - at the forefront of women's rights. They do not know - or completely ignore - the historical fact that Russian women were far ahead of American women in the numbers of university graduates in once male dominated areas of study, resulting in tens of thousands of engineers and medical doctors. Incidentally, the first woman in space was a Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, who lifted off in 1963 - a full 20 years ahead of her American counterpart Sally Ride.
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The Duran
Contrary to popular Western belief, Russia is actually leading the world in women empowerment and does not suffer from homophobia.
When Russia's Elvira Nabiullina was named European central banker of 2016, while reading an article on this story and checking the comments section, I noticed several facetious compliments such as "Russia is finally catching up in the area of gender equality". Talk about inaccurate observations...
There is a persistent tendency in the West - and in particular, the US - to view Russia as being somehow "behind the times" when it comes to basic human rights. This mistaken view is mostly due to two factors: 1) A lack of understanding of Russian history and 2) A lack of understanding of Russian culture. Let's address these factors while examining two specific areas of concern.
Many Americans have a strongly-held ethnocentric belief that their country was - and is - at the forefront of women's rights. They do not know - or completely ignore - the historical fact that Russian women were far ahead of American women in the numbers of university graduates in once male dominated areas of study, resulting in tens of thousands of engineers and medical doctors. Incidentally, the first woman in space was a Russian, Valentina Tereshkova, who lifted off in 1963 - a full 20 years ahead of her American counterpart Sally Ride.
Read more
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