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and being the perfect housewife while her husband works.
Other leave Russia because they want opportunities to work
and do more than being a housewife. Men need to consider
this men they marry a RW. All the documents you read will
never tell you what to expect. You need to spend much time
talking to your prospective partner and planning for your
life ahead.
Another thing to consider is that there is now a
growing group of women who never even have thoughts of
being an housewife. They are not looking for a normal
life. They are looking for a better life.
It is an ancient custom for a woman to run the house:
cleaning, cooking, looking after the children, washing and
mending the linen, making preserves. As a matter of fact,
the ideas of the wife's duties have been adjusted in the
long run but haven't essentially changed.
In Russia the responsibility for maintaining order in a
home (daily and overall cleaning) lies upon the woman.
Russian women are naturally very clean, therefore their
home, either a town apartment or a country cottage, is
shining as a rule. There are several ways to attain the
goal.
In high-income families the work is done by a daily
help or people from special agencies hired by the hostess
on purpose. The hostess is to control their work.
Most Russian families cannot afford a hired cleaner, so
the task is carried out by the feminine part of the
family: grandmother, mother and grown-up children. In
united, loving families men can also participate actively
in maintaining order.
Modern city-dwellers very often do not distinguish
between wife's and husband's house duties: they prefer to
carry them out together, or a spouse having spare time and
a desire to do it at the moment, dies the work. In the
country they stick to the traditional division of labor.
The living conditions can easily account for the fact. In
the country men retain the duties connected with hard
physical work in running the family farm and garden.
That's why women shoulder all concerns for the home.
Clean linen and clothes are the second concern of
Russian women. Neatly dressed children and husband wearing
a clean well ironed shirt add to her reputation of a good
wife.
Kitchen. It has always been the working place of the
Russian woman in the house. Deprived of electric kitchen
appliances aid, the Russian woman is engaged in a non-stop
cycle of cutting, boiling and frying something. One of the
characteristic features of the Russian cuisine is a great
number of ingredients, and it's very time and effort
consuming. Russian women treat with distrust the
semi-finished products and prefer to do everything with
their own hands. In summer and autumn the usual continuing
cycle of cooking breakfast, dinner and supper is
accompanied by making preserves for winter: juices, jams,
pickles, salads.
Children. Theoretically, a three-year long leave to
look after a new-born can be granted on either a father or
a mother, but in reality fathers exercise this right only
in exceptional cases. That means that looking after the
children is exclusively mother's duty.
Dacha (garden plot). In the 1990s dachas turned from a
place for rest into a major means of surviving - people
then were more like farmers than amateur gardeners. A
dacha is a place to grow vegetables, fruit, berries, to
breed poultry, cows, pigs. Under economic crisis and
unemployment conditions, in circumstances when wages are
not at paid or detained, when food prices grow steadily
up, a dacha provides food thus avoiding death. And again
the major part of the dacha burden falls to the woman's
lot: she tends seedlings in spring, she plants, weeds
waters, gathers the harvest, makes preserves in summer and
in autumn. Of course there are fanatics for whom working
in the garden is a hobby. Most people, however, refrain
from having rest on weekends and work themselves into
fainting out of ruthless necessity, because the Russian
woman doesn't see any other ways to provide her family
with fresh vegetables and fruit.
So we won't be mistaken if we claim that the Russian
woman doesn't imagine herself apart from her house.
Traditionally she runs the house, not considering the task
an unbearable burden. Still any Russian woman will dream
of having less house work waiting to be done.
Russian Women and Domestic Finance
In Russia up to nowadays the most common family type is
the one in which wife is the family Treasurer; husband
will give her the money her earns and... this is the limit
to his authority over money matters. It is not vital in a
Russian family, who cooks, cleans and does the washing and
who earns the money. Each tries to meet the requirements
of a specific situation. Spouses make roughly equal
contribution to the family budget. The attitudes of modern
Russian women towards money vary. Some follow the
principle 'don't put off till tomorrow what you can spend
today', others plan, how much and for what purpose to
spend in minute details. The disconcerting Russian life
makes the woman plan thoroughly the family budget: the
wages day used to be fixed and this allowed it to plan
'from the one wage to the next one', so to say; nowadays
nobody feels confident about the day to come, and Russian
women have learnt to save for a rainy day.
And still is there a woman who hasn't ever been tempted
to buy a thing that caught her eye and spent more than a
half of the family budget? Russian women are also subject
to such 'fits'. Though lately Russian women lose their
head and spend money yielding to an occasional temptation
considerably less often.
If the financial well-being of the Russian woman
improves, she doesn't turn into a spendthrift. She will
enjoy the feeling of confidence that money ensures, and
may buy some trifle for herself to prove that she is free
to spend. Though practical experience shows that the women
having so called 'spare money' turn to be more economical
and careful in their spending than their less wealthy
female friends. If you marry a decent Russian woman, you
won't have to beware the 'sudden' loss of your money She
won't do any major purchases without consulting with you
first: traditionally Russians discuss such matters at a
'family council'.
In essence wisdom and shrewdness which is so
characteristic of the Russian woman allowed her to
understand that chronic lack of money results in family
crises and destruction of man's social status, but that
huge income isn't a universal panacea either; on the
contrary, in is accompanied by new troubles.
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