During the last decade Russian politics have aimed at stimulating the birth rate, most famously by the maternity capital program. This article provides results from the first extensive study of citizen use and attitudes to this benefit and concludes that Russian women and families harbor a deep distrust of the program and Russian social policy, as it sends contradictory messages combining paternalistic and liberal trends. Many eligible mothers have not activated their capital due to various bureaucratic obstacles they encounter. Contrary to the expectations of economists and sociologists, the results indicate that middle-class families have more resources to use their capital.
AvdeyevaA (2011) Policy experiment in Russia: Cash-for-babies and fertility change. Social Politics18(3): 361–386.
2.
BessarabovaAYusopovaD (2006) Ne v den’gah detstvo [Childhood is not just money]. Russian Newsweek19 (22–28May): 24–27.
3.
CarlbäckHGradskovaYKravchenkoZ (eds) (2012) And They Lived Happily Ever After: Norms and Everyday Practices of Family and Parenthood in Russia and Central Europe. Budapest and New York: CEU Press.
4.
ChernovaZ (2010) ‘Demograficheskiy rezerv’: Molodaia sem’ia kak ob’yekt gosudarstvennoi politiki [‘Demographic reserve’: The young family as an object of public policy]. Zhenshchina v Rossiyskom Obshchestve3: 44–51.
5.
ChernovaZ (2011) Semeinaya politika sovremennoy Rossii: Genderniy analiz i otsenka effektivnosti [Contemporary Russian family policy: Gender analysis and evaluation of efficiency]. Zhenshchina v Rossiyskom Obshchestve3: 44–51.
6.
ChernovaZ (2013) Sem’ia kak Politicheskii Vopros: Gosudarstvenii Proekt I Praktiki Privatnosti [Family as a Political Issue: The State Project and Practices of Private]. St Petersburg: EUSP Press.
7.
CookL (2011) Russia’s welfare regime: The shift toward statism. In: JäppinenMKulmalaMSaarinenA (eds) Gazing at Welfare, Gender and Agency in Post-Socialist Countries. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 14–37.
8.
DeaconB (2000) Eastern European welfare states: The impact of the politics of globalization. Journal of European Social Policy10(2): 146–161.
9.
ErmakovaY (2012) V Volgograde 15 semei pitalis’ nezakonno ispol’zovat’ materinskii kapital [In Volgograd 15 families tried to use the maternity capital illegally]. Komsomol’skaya Pravda. Volgograd, 1March. Available at: volgograd.kp.ru/online/news/1094482/ (accessed 5 September 2012).
10.
Esping-AndersenG (1990) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
11.
JäppinenMKulmalaMSaarinenA (eds) (2011) Gazing at Welfare, Gender and Agency in Post-socialist Countries. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
12.
GlassCFodorE (2007) From public to private maternalism? Gender and welfare in Poland and Hungary after 1989. Social Politics14(3): 323–350.
13.
KamaevaAKozlovaN (2012) Oj, Mamochki! Zakon o viplatakh mladentsam plodit moshennikov (Oh, Mommy! The law on baby-bonuses provokes swindlers]. Rossiyskaya Gazeta 5674. Available at: www.rg.ru/2012/01/10/matkapital.html (accessed 5 September 2012).
14.
KashinaMYukinaI (2009) Rossiiskaia demograficheskaia politika: Opit gendernogo analiza [Russian demographic policy: A gendered analysis]. Zhurnal Sotsiologii i Sotsial’noi Antropologii12(1): 109–123.
15.
KravchenkoZ (2008) Family (versus) policy: Combining work and care in Russia and Sweden. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Stockholm Studies in Sociology. New Series 30. Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 27, Stockholm.
16.
LedenevaA (1998) Russia’s Economy of Favors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17.
LonkilaM (2011) Networks in the Russian Market Economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
18.
MalevaTSinyavskayaO (2006) Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie factori rozhdaemosti v Rossii: Empiricheskie izmereniia i vizovi sotial’noi politike [Socioeconomic factors of fertility in Russia: Empirical dimensions and social policy challenges]. In: MalevaTSinyavskayaO (eds) Roditeli i Deti, Muzhshiny i Zhneshiny v Sem’e i Obshchestve po Materialam Odnogo Issledovaniia. Moscow: NISP, pp. 171–216.
19.
OvcharovaL (ed.) (2010) Determinanti Reproductivnogo Povedenia Naselenia i Faktori Semeinogo Neblagopoluchia: Rezul’tati Panel’nih Issledovanii [Determinants of People’s Reproductive Behavior and Factors of Family Ill-being: Results of Panel Researches]. Moscow: NISP.
20.
PascallGLewisJ (2004) Emerging gender regimes and policies for gender equality in a wider Europe. Journal of European Social Policy33(3): 373–394.
21.
PascallGManningN (2000) Gender and social policy: Comparing welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe and in former Soviet Union. Journal of European Social Policy10(3): 240–266.
Rivkin-FishM (2010) Pronatalism, gender politics, and the renewal of family support in Russia: Toward a feminist anthropology of ‘maternity capital’. Slavic Review69(3): 701–724.
24.
RotkirchAKesseliK (2012) ‘Two children puts you in the zone of social misery’: Childbearing and risk perception among Russian women. In: CarlbackHGradskovaYKravchenkoZ (eds) And They Lived Happily Ever After: Norms and Everyday Practices of Family and Parenthood in Russia and Eastern Europe. Budapest and New York: CEU Press, pp. 145–164.
25.
RotkirchATemkinaAZdravomyslovaE (2007) Who helps the degraded housewife? Comments on Vladimir Putin’s demographic speech. European Journal of Women’s Studies14(4): 349–357.
26.
ScherbakovaE (2013) V 2012 godu vnov’ uskorilsya rost chisla rodivshihsya [In 2012 the number of births has grown again]. Demoscope541–542. Available at: demoscope.ru/weekly/2013/0541/barom03.php (accessed 4 June 2013).
27.
SzelewaDPolakowskiM (2008) Who cares? Changing patterns of childcare in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of European Social Policy18(2): 115–131.
28.
TeplovaT (2007) Welfare state transformation, childcare, and women’s work in Russia. Social Politics14(3): 284–322
29.
ZakharovS (2008) Russian Federation: From the first to second demographic transition. Demographic Research19(24): 907–972.
