Gender Relations in Russian-Speaking Countries

Mary was beautiful, with thick dark hair, huge, slightly protruding eyes, and a touch of condescension in her smile. At the age of sixteen, she married Zinovi Stolberg, an energetic, intelligent and enterprising young man. Three years later, in 1929, she gave birth to Klara and left her husband because he annoyed her with his opinions. Not his opinions as such since she never listened to what he said anyways but, rather, with his daring to express any opinions at all. 

                                                                                                          Michael Blekhman, Reflection

When I became a college student in Canada in 1998, I was shocked to see that male students spoke out and expressed their opinions both in class and outside of it. I was used to my male classmates sitting in the back rows of the classroom and giggling. My idea of men was that they constantly needed to be told what to do by women. Who would then have the task of putting right everything that inept, helpless men would inevitably mess up. My favorite sentence in dealing with men at that time was, 'We are going to do what I say, when I say, and how I say it.' And if you believe that this attitude made my romantic life problematic, you couldn't be more wrong. Nothing is easier than abandoning responsibility for your life to somebody who is willing to assume it, so there were crowds of candidates for the role of a man who is being bossed around by a strong woman. (I've changed since then, of course, and now resist all attempts of people to assign me the role of the boss of their lives.)

We are a culture of powerful, bossy women and immature men who never speak out. They just mumble. Obviously, not everybody is this way, but this trend exists and it is very powerful. So if you think that the quote I gave above is a joke or an exaggeration, think again. I knew Mary when she was a lot older but she was exactly the way she is described here. She was my great-grandmother.