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Family and (vs) work in the political discourse, research and everyday life of Russians

Noskova A.V.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, a.noskova@inno.mgimo.ru

elibrary_id: 397796 |

Kuzmina E.I.,

MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, e.kuzmina@inno.mgimo.ru

elibrary_id: 1047312 | ORCID: 0000-0001-6192-7852 |

Article received: 2025.07.04 22:27. Accepted: 2025.09.10 22:27


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2025.06.05
EDN: OLRAKU

Rubric: Russia today

For citation:

Noskova A.V., Kuzmina E.I. Family and (vs) work in the political discourse, research and everyday life of Russians. – Polis. Political Studies. 2025. No. 6. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2025.06.05. EDN: OLRAKU (In Russ.)

This article was prepared under the RNF grant No. 23-18-00635.

Abstract

The contradiction between family and professional life, which first emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the development of the phenomenon of extrafamilial employment of women, is acquiring new value-based meanings and is being actively politicized in the 21st century. Issues related to family well-being are increasingly included in the country’s political agenda, driven by economic and demographic realities. At the same time, the modern family is facing with renewed intensity the questions of combining reproductive and labor functions. The dynamic development of the “familywork” discourse necessitates an update from an academic point of view – alongside critical and gender approaches, which continue the Western tradition, there is a growing need for an analytical perspective relevant to Russian socio-political realities and new challenges in the sphere of social policy. Its distinctive feature, according to the authors of the article, could be a synthesis of three dimensions, allowing the problem to be viewed from the perspective of public and personal well-being: a retrospective look at the socio-economic context and measures to address the issue of women combining “family and work”; an examination of political narratives about the family; and the use of data to describe the practices of Russians in combining professional and family responsibilities. Reflecting on the origins of the debate, the authors turned to the ideas of A.M. Kollontai and S.G. Strumilin as foundational contributions that kicked off the domestic discourse on combining family and work in different ideological planes – gender and demographic. Political narratives are presented through the analysis of Presidential Addresses to the Federal Assembly from 2000 to 2024, which reveal the evolution of the family agenda in Russian political discourse during the first quarter of the 21st century and the integration of narratives about balancing family and work obligations. Based on empirical data covering the period 1993–2023, the dynamics of a positive correlation between job satisfaction and family life satisfaction (“balance of satisfactions”) are shown, illustrating a value shift. Overall, the research results demonstrate both coherences and several gaps between the articulated agenda and the real situation. Although political statements generally reflect a public demand for support for families with children, there is a deficit of political attention to ensuring equal and successful involvement of an individual in both family life and professional activity. The article concludes that it is necessary to develop social policy measures focused on achieving this balance, while taking into account Russian specifics.

Keywords

political discourse, political narrative, work-family balance, family agenda, work-family conflict, extrafamilial women’s labor, family life satisfaction, well-being, social policy.

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