Top senator wants child-free ideology outlawed in Russia
The ideology which urges women to not have children should be banned in Russia, Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council, has said.
In an interview with Izvestia on the sidelines of the Eurasian Women’s Forum 2024 (EAWF) in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Matvienko said that feminism in its current Western interpretation does not meet the needs of modern women.
"When feminism was just emerging, it was based on the noble idea of fighting for equality for women. However, in the West, feminism has degenerated and radicalized. It became militant,” she stated.
Modern feminism “has turned into a struggle... against men, against traditional values,” the senator said, adding that one example of this is “the child-free movement, which, in my opinion, should be made illegal.”
The EAWF promotes a “different platform,” standing for “the preservation of key traditional values of mankind,” according to Matvienko.
More than 2,000 women, including 600 foreign guests from 126 countries and international organizations who are attending the forum, share Russia’s values of “traditional family, children, parents, the preservation of the culture and traditions of all nations,” she went on to say.
"Of course, women should also have an opportunity for self-realization, while maintaining their core mission of being a mother, a grandmother, a wife,” Matvienko said, adding that governments should work to create the conditions “so that in every country, a woman can combine a successful career with having a family.”
On Wednesday, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, stated that the LDPR “fully supports” the top senator’s call to outlaw the ‘child-free’ ideology.
"There should be no propaganda of voluntary childlessness, free love. This is alien to our civilization, our traditions, the foundations of our society,” he said, claiming that those who promote these ideas among the younger generation “are working against Russia, against our future.”
In June, Russian Deputy Justice Minister Vsevolod Vukolov said that a draft bill banning child-free ideology has already been prepared by the State Duma. According to Volkov, the legislation is currently being studied by experts.
According to data from Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat), only 1,264 million babies were born in Russia in 2023, the lowest number since 1999. The agency predicts that the birth rate will not start growing again until 2028. By 2046, the population is projected to decline to 138 million, from the current 146 million.
