Senate Speaker Valentina Matviyenko. Photo: Federation Council
The speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, criticised the so-called “child-free movement” and the “degeneration” of feminism in the West in an interview she gave to state-affiliated newspaper Izvestia during the Eurasian Women’s Forum in St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
“Initially, when feminism was in its infancy, it was based on the sound idea of fighting for equal rights for women,” Matviyenko said, adding that feminism had since “degenerated” in the West, becoming both “radicalised” and “militant”.
“It has turned into an anti-male, anti-traditional values movement,” she continued. “Now it’s about all sorts of genders, over fifty of which have been invented. Or, let’s say, the child-free movement, which, in my opinion, should be banned by law”.
According to Matviyenko, the values being promoted by the forum included “preserving the core traditional values of the whole of humankind” and “women’s self-fulfilment”, though she stressed that a woman’s “main mission” in life — becoming “a mother, and grandmother, a wife” should be preserved.
She also expressed her support for “the wives and mothers” of Russian men fighting in Ukraine.
“When I visit the [Russian] regions, I always have tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat when I meet these amazing, wonderful women. And they never ask for anything extra, that’s just who they are — great patriots,” Matviyenko said.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly criticised what they describe as“child-free ideology”, or the voluntary decision not to have children. While the number of people remaining childless by choice in Russia has been rising over the past few years, sociologist Olga Isupova told Novaya Europe in July that “ideology” had nothing to do with it, and that Russia’s consistently low birth rates were more likely influenced by economic uncertainty and the war in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, Russian lawmakers have doubled down on their attacks on the “child-free movement” recently, with State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya calling it “a weapon directed against the young” in June, while Russian Deputy Justice Minister Vsevolod Vukolov called the movement “extremist” and said the Russian authorities were “actively developing” legislation to ban it.
A bill banning the promotion of “childfree ideology“ to minors was introduced to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, in September 2022. However, it was withdrawn in March 2023, and no new legislation on the issue has subsequently been proposed.
Matviyenko, who has served as speaker of the Federation Council since 2011, was the governor of St. Petersburg in the 2000s, and is one of the few women in Russia to hold a senior political position, constitutionally only outranked by the president and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
