Women and Men, Old and New?

What's it like to be a woman, or a man, in Estonia today--especially given all the changes in thetwenty years since independence from the Soviet Union? Is Estonia approaching "gender equality," and what would that mean? In what ways are people here "doing gender" in the old ways, and in what ways exploring new possibilities?

By some measures, women seem to be doing well. Soviet policy (1945-1991) encouraged women to enter paid work, and in fact the loss of so many men during World War II almost required it. "Socialist Realism" paintings of that time (see the photo on the left, of a painting in the national art museum here in Tallinn) sometimes portray and celebrate women providing necessary labor on the farms and in factories. Women were a majority of medical doctors long before American medical schools began admitting women in any real numbers, though they were paid relatively low wages (in the Ukraine, doctors still earn only a couple of hundred dollars a month).

In Estonia today women are still used to working outside the home and earning money. They are also the majority of university students, though women and men tend to choose different fields.

And women outlive men by ten years (in the U.S. it's five), the greatest gender gap in longevity in

the European Union (of which Estonia has become a member)--though this is partly a reflection of men doing worse than average rather than women doing better in this regard.

The photo on the right, for a play in Lithuania when we recently visited there (the words translate as "men and women" might also reflect the ways in which men and women here in Estonia are thinking about the ways in which their gender roles are sometimes challenging, often changing, and subject to discussion.

In some ways old gender patterns prevail. All men in Estonia are conscripted for a year of military training and service (the photo at left is from an exhibit of prize-winners from last year's Estonian newspapers, of summer military exercises, deriving its humor from several soldiers coming upon a farm woman reading her newspaper). And men still dominate politics,

with women having only about the same representation in the national legislature as in the U.S. (and, similarly, somewhat fewer seats as a result of the conservative victories in the last elections in each country). At the other end of the spectrum, women continue to do more work

which is related to or an extension of their traditional family roles: teachers of younger

children (see the photo below of schoolkids and their teachers on a field trip), for example.

The different work that women and men do

means that women earn less (occupational differences account for more than simple pay discrimination for the same jobs). The "gender gap" in pay for full-time workers is about 30% here, the greatest in the EU, a concern to many particularly in the current economic crisis. The gap is especially hard on single moms; the divorce rate in Estonia is now quite high. And, with the differences in lifespans, many older woman may be on their own without the financial (as well as emotional) companionship of a husband.

Does all this mean that it's "better" to be a man than a woman after all, in spite of women's high participation in higher education and the workforce? Yes, in some important ways. But I'm also struck by the higher-than-usual lifespan gap for men. And there are other signs of problems: Estonian men commit suicide at much higher rates than women, and even much

higher than men in most other EU countries. Rates of alcohol abuse and binge drinking are quite high, along with (related) risky behavior. Estonian men develop a chronic illness or disability (enough to interfere with their life) at the average age of only 59, relatively early.

But there may be some drawbacks to being a woman in Estonia as well--in addition to earning

less pay. I haven't read about this in official reports and statistics, but it seems likely that the emphasis on beauty is strong. Is it hard for a woman to get noticed if she's not slim, pretty, blond, and well-dressed (or perhaps undressed)?

(I see the same dilemmas among women students at home: bright, well-educated, career-

oriented young women who also feel a need to be attractive and sexy as that is defined today.)

Note the recent advertising campaign in the photo on the left (advertising what? drivers

passing by have time only to notice the photos!).

What does this suggest to young women about how they should look? To older women about how they no longer look? To men about the sort of woman they should find attractive?

(Symbolism: in the background is an old grey Soviet-era building, c. 1954; on the right, a shiney new Finnish department store--connected to each other by the images of the same young woman in various poses and stages of dress. Hmmmm.)

There are, of course, images of attractive men in some advertising--though usually the men are wearing sharp business suits and ties, indicating economic success and status, with little skin showing unless the ad's for underwear. Another

new ad campaign widely on view around town is in the photo to the right--a young blond with an innocent-yet-provocative look, showing the bit of bosom that is now so popular (one notes that the passersby are more bundled up).

In case we haven't gotten the message about what a woman should look like, the advertisement in the photo below left, which recently went up near the little cafe I often go to, has an image four stories high, a bit hard to miss.

And I can't help include the photo below and to the right, in which a large poster (at one of the main intersections in Tallinn) for the "Sound of Music" is set (accidentally?) against an advertisement for a strip-club just down the street. I'm curious to know what local people might make of these various images, though I know when we were in Lithuania in 1997 women in my Women's Studies classes were concerned that their younger sisters were being negatively affected by the Western-style advertising that was coming in, increased attention to "working on their bodies" to get the "right" size and shape, and the risks of sex trafficking (young blond woman from poor eastern European countries were at a premium).

I can't conclude this entry without noting that I've met some of the women (and a few men) who are concerned about and working on gender issues such as those I've touched on here. I gave a talk at a workshop for people from a variety of government "ministries" (departments) this week on "The Benefits of Gender Equality" (see photo below of the gathering), emphasizing the ways in which not only women but men, employers, families, and Estonia as a whole have a stake in working through what gender means in people's lives today. I've been impressed with those doing this work, and by ways in which Estonia has some policies which we in the U.S. could consider: Estonia provides economic support for couples who have small children (receiving a large portion of their usual income in order to stay home with them), available to men as well as women. (In the U.S. the federal law passed during the Clinton years only guarantees three months unpaid leave.)

One of the things that pulls Estonia towards greater equality is its occasional identification as a Scandinavian (or at least Scandinavian-like) country, a part of the world with the most progressive government policies about gender equality (see the photo below, of the Estonian flag, on the left, among the flags of Scandinavian countries, on a downtown hotel). A second is Estonia's membership in the European Union, which involves a commitment to some of the human rights and equality concerns the EU has adopted. But, in the end, the most important factor may be that men as well as women (in different ways) would benefit from re-thinking gender, keeping values and traditions that still work, but finding a way to develop new ones for the new society Estonians are seeking to create.

Bruce

p.s. Sorry about some of the word spacing in this entry; I accidentally deleted one of the photos, and when I added it back in it seemed to get the layout out of kilter in a way I'm not able to fix.

p.p.s. This entry's about gender, but in a later one I'll talk about gay and lesbian issues here in Estonia (which are rarely mentioned in discussions of gender equality). I'm doing a little with the folks working on the "Baltic Pride" celebration in early June, and should have a report in the future.