Middle class families in Russia: management of emotions and work on

«relationships»

Larisa ShpakovskayaHigher School of Economics, St Petersburg

RN 13 Families and Intimate LivesFamily Relations and Social Inequalities

ESA 10th Conference, 7-10.09.2011Geneve

Middle class, family and parenthood. Research questions.

The middle class's practices and attitudes to the family and childbearing

Higher degree of reflexivity (A. Giddens) can be found, self-reflection and individualism

Reflexivity — strategic planning of life trajectory, making choice

Reflexivity related to the «work» «Work» - emotional and physical efforts of self-

adjustment to standard and norms of «decent», «normal», «good» life

Data and research design

About 100 interviews with family and mothers conducted in 2009-2011 in Higher School of Economics and European University at St Petersburg (Russia)

Two types of respondents: Middle class couples (cohabiting or married, with

children or childless, in St Petersburg) Middle and lower class women (cohabiting or

married, having children and childless, in St Petersburg and Ulyanovsk)

What is middle class in Russia?

Class criteria: education, employment, income and identity

14-22% of population belong to the middle class Middle people have higher education,

«intellectual» job employment, average income (up to 400 EUR) and identify themselves as “average” or “middle”

Life styles and consumer preferences are similar to the middle class in Europe

Carriers of social innovation

Family relations: “relationships” and division of labour

“Relationships” in middle class Work on relationship Opposite to the family roles Result of emotional work and self-control efforts Result of negotiations and agreements (about

household work, reproductive plans etc). Similar to the notion of “pure relationships”

(Giddens) No “relationships” in lower classes?

Parenthood and childbearing

Reflexive parenthood of middle class Work on the sufficient condition of childbearing, to

be “normal”, “good” family, to respond to the living standards

Parenthood is part of life project (carrier, income, number of children and time of their birth)

Problem for young middle class women,gender asymmetry of parenthood

Low classes – no planning and no resources

Some conclusions: family relations and social inequalities

Middle class and lower classes families are carriers of different types of practices and attitudes toward family and childcare

Middle class is associated with “new” practices and attitudes: Contracts and negotiations Bourgeois family (breadwinner and housewife)

Lower classes is associated more with “old soviet” practices “working mother” gender contract Coping with difficulties