In July 1980, a group of female dissidents were expelled from the Soviet Union for publishing a samizdat journal, where they contemplated social issues such as the double burden, family pressures, and unequal treatment toward women in a supposedly egalitarian society. In post-Soviet Russia, new groups have emerged in support of women’s rights, and today a new generation of activists is promoting the values of feminism and equality in a civil society that is increasingly under pressure. In this panel marking the forty year anniversary of the expulsion, Dmitry Kozlov, Ella Rossman, and Valerie Sperling will consider the past and present of the Russian feminist agenda and will discuss the relationship between feminists and other human rights activists in Russia.
