Women’s Representation in Russian Federation Government Bodies from 1991 to 2023

The representation of women in public authorities reflects a number of more general issues related to gender equality, the peculiarities of women’s political leadership, women’s participation in politics, etc. The aim of this article was to identify gender proportions in the federal executive authorities and the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for the period from 1991 to 2023. The study was conducted by statistical analysis of data presented in open sources, on the websites of the Federation Council, the State Duma, the Government and other public authorities. This article reflects the dynamics of changes in the gender distribution of positions in the field of politics over the period under study. For the analysis, the highest positions of executive and other state authorities of the country were selected, as well as membership in both chambers of the Russian parliament, which made it possible to consider women’s representation in positions involving direct decision-making. The study raises the problem of the underrepresentation of women in senior political and elected positions in public administration. According to the results of the study, data on women’s representation in government over the past 33 years were systematized. A trend to increase the representation of women in high-level executive positions has been identified. At the same time, the number of women in the Cabinet of Ministers of our country in the entire history of the Russian Federation has not exceeded 11% or two female representatives at the same time. No more than two women at the same time had the opportunity to take the position of Deputy Prime Minister. There are positions that have been held exclusively by men for more than thirty years. The number of women in the country’s parliament is also small, but the positive trend here is more pronounced. With a global average of 26.5% female representation, in Russia there are only 18.4% women among the members of both houses of parliament.

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