Dating Career Women in Russia

Women in Russia often see their partners or husbands as the head of the family. Often the Russian culture has established specific gender roles with women usually ending up staying home and taking care of their family in lieu of progressive professional careers.

Recently, modern Russian society has taken a shift, and Russian women are breaking the barriers of gender roles. Russian women are now taking proactive roles in leadership and are currently in the process of ushering in the era of career women in the Russian society.

Dating a Russian woman with a career will have its challenges, but it doesn’t vary too much. After all, career woman or not, you are still in a relationship with a Russian woman.

Soviet Era Gender Discriminations

Interesting fact, when learning the linguistic nature of the Russian language, they often refer to men as the stronger sex. However, instead of the women being referred to as the weaker sex, they most often referred as the prettier sex.

This is due to the culture in Russian society of chivalry in men. Men are expected to be gentlemen everytime, and to live up to the prettier sex concept, women are expected to be prim and proper as well.

Due to the analogy of men being the stronger sex and women being the prettier sex, during the Cold War, the Soviet Republic released a list of occupations that women aren’t allowed to hold. These occupations are jobs that might include manual labor or exposure to dangerous chemicals. The analogy of the list is that these jobs are harmful to women and that it is the state’s duty to preserve the fertility of Soviet women.

Post-Soviet Russia has updated the list and has shortened it from 456 jobs women aren’t allowed to do to a list of 100. Russian women’s rights activists are currently in the work to fully abolish the list with the support of various international organizations including the United Nations.

A number of landmark cases have been won in favor of gender equality in Russia and is paving the way for more women to take on leadership roles and a more commanding position in their careers.

Understand Career Women in Russia

Since most of the women in Russia are able to hold jobs now, chances are you will be dating a career woman. Here are things to understand when dating a career woman in Russia:

1. She’ll be fully booked.

   Since the current trend in modern Russia still has the traditional gender roles where women are to stay at home while the men work, it is important to note that to successfully thrive in a professional theatre and break barriers, career women invest a lot of time into their careers. A lot of times her schedule will be filled with work with only a few days left to rest and recuperate.

   You have to respect her schedule and dedication for her work. There will be moments when she may need time to disengage from her responsibilities at work and re-engage with her personal life.

   Don’t bother her by sending text messages or emails every second of every day. This will only stress her out even more. It’s best that you give her time to find the balance between her professional life and her personal life.

2. She carries her own burdens.

   Career women are independent, and it’s important that you should respect that. She wants to take care of herself, and she will. She’ll pay her own bills and will not expect any man to pick up after her. We’re living in a modern time, and it’s important we throw away all the gender roles in Russia.

   If she insists on taking care of the check whenever you two go out, allow her. This will give her the idea that you aren’t insecure about her success. If her independence makes you feel somewhat emasculated, that’s a problem on your part and not hers.

3. She’s independent. You should be too.

   It might sound like getting your own life and finding hobbies and activities you enjoy without her seem counterproductive, but this will actually do more good than harm your relationship.

   She will have to spend a lot of time at work and may not have time to interact with you while she’s at it. It is important to give yourself the time to enjoy and do something you’re passionate about.

   She’s an independent woman, and you should be an independent man as well. The only way you can appreciate the things that she does and empathize for the hardships that goes through balancing life at work and personal life is by being independent as well.

   It doesn’t mean that you compete with her in terms of where you are in your career; it means that you should keep yourself together the same way she does. And although she is a successful woman in her field, you are still in a relationship with a Russian woman. She will need you when things are getting harder or when things are falling apart.

Keeping the Lines Open Is Key

Communication is an important pillar to a successful relationship. When both of you are juggling careers and a relationship, not to mention other responsibilities in life, communication will help you both to get on the same page.

Keep the communication line open, and keep it casual. You’ve both had enough corporate meetings for the day. Don’t make your communication cycle be the same.

Sometimes it’s not always about discussing the events of the day and going through each problem encountered. Sometimes talking about where to eat next or other things not work related will really help relieve the stresses of the day. It’s important to spend time talking to her and make her feel safe.

An important part of keeping communication lines open is to make sure both of you aren’t keeping any heart aches hidden. Busy schedules and work related conflicts may take up too much of your time and there might be days when you start losing touch of each other.

It’s important that you talk about these issues at the soonest convenience. Discuss, don’t debate. Your relationship is a partnership, so it’s important to find a compromise and not compete, to agree and not to argue.

The first time will be hard, but meaningful relationships with career women in Russia will need understanding.