Social and Economic Effects of the Russian Mail Order Bride Industry The mail order bride industry has always been controversial on a global scale due to its undeniable reality of selling human beings to one another. In most cases this proves to be a true testament about the industry, but in the case of Russia much of the actual reality goes unknown. The history behind the term "mail order brides" goes as far back as the time of the first American settlers. The settlers, most of whom were men, could not find suitable women to marry and had to write letters to Europe asking women to become their wives. In those days, arranged marriages were quite common, and marrying somebody you barely knew was nothing out of the ordinary.
Because the traditional attitude in the Soviet Union at that time women are the keepers of the home persisted. When time goes to 1980s, thanks to the market reforms and President Gorbachev’s outdated ideas, many women lost their jobs involuntarily. However, the average educated level of female labor force in Russia is now better than male labor force. Even though, as recently as 2005, the wages of women professional workers averaged 36 percent less than those of men. So there is still an unequal between women and men in Russia today.
Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a famous novel related to mixed emotions concerning family issues. The main theme of the novel is marriage and its importance in the society. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ portrays the significance of how marriage was treated in the nineteenth century, where the elopement of a woman with a man was very common yet it wasn’t socially accepted. In the nineteenth century women had a lower status in society than men, for instance they were not allowed to vote. At the time women were not permitted to inherit their fathers wealth and therefore had to choose husbands who were financially stable.
First world war put immense pressure on Russia. The army and the civilians were demoralised to a great extent and the government did not seem able to cope with the situation. Whether it was the Tsar’s focus on keeping his power or just the miscalculations and failures that occurred during the war, it is clear that WW1 was the main cause of the collapse of the Tsarist government. However there were other many factors that contributed to this. At the beginning, war was immensely popular in Russia.
However, sociologists would not all agree that this is the primary reason for the trends. Feminists would argue that changes in the position of women, for example improvements in their economic situation have had a large impact. Now, 70% of women are in paid work, compared to 49% in 1965. Subsequently, women are less likely to be financially dependent on their husbands and thus freer to end an unhappy marriage. Feminists also argue that women work triple-shifts within households, leading to conflict and leading to more divorces.
How successful were Witte's modernising policies for Russia? Throughout the 19th Century Russia had suffered many challenges and problems both economically and industrially. Despite the sheer size of Russia they were fast falling behind Western countries such as Great Britain and Germany in many aspects; Russia fell behind in areas such as, politics in which they were failing to advance due to their refusal to introduce a working parliament, economy as they had yet to introduce a less intimidating and more understandable backing system so to encourage trading with other countries and industrialisation which was done on a small scale and restricted by the lack of railways and roads. Famine was running high due to extensive taxes, agriculture was waning due to the rapid expansion of the population and the inability to distribute productive agricultural land and foreign investment was practically non existent. The country was in desperate needs of some reforms that could put her back on the map and help her regain her status as one of Europe's "Great Powers".
The Tsar had the right to dismiss the Duma at any time, for any reason he found suitable. This was extremely detrimental to the Tsar relations with his people and therefore his Duma and as relations broke down with the Duma the people uprising began to start again. The arrival of Rasputin to the imperial palace was another reason as, although he was helping the son of the Tsar recover from his bouts of haemophilia, he was known as a womaniser. This was bad enough as it is but he also had a close relationship with the Tsar’s wife and
The gender norms prior to the journey from Europe to North America were changed due to severe servitude circumstances, gender imbalance, late and short marriages, and high mortality. Why didn’t more women come to the Americas? Few women wished to leave their families and community in Europe to venture into an unknown land when they weren’t positive they would make it out dead or alive. Another determining factor was a woman’s use as an indentured servant. Women were not as desirable as men to merchants and planters who were rising and marketing tobacco, which entailed countless hours of manual and hard labor.
Among the new information I learned, there were a lot of similarities and differences between the women. One comparison was that the women were both designated to wed a cousin. As a cultural taboo in America, I saw this to be very odd and awkward. It is widely accepted in the middle eastern cultures to marry someone in your own family, and it is seen as strengthening. Even though the two women were matched with their cousins, neither of them liked their “fiances”.
1. Approachability – In general, women in Russia and Europe are a million times more approachable, easy to meet, hook up with, and bring into your social/dating circle than women in North America. This I can guarantee a thousand percent a thousand times over. In fact, the difference in approachability is greater than the average American who’s never left their country can imagine. In contrast, trying to meet and approach young women in the US often feels awkward and rude.