Petersburg Center for Gender Issues

The Center is an educational, research and activist non-profit organization dealing with the issues of gender inequality in Russian society. The Center is funded by the German foundation Heinrich Boll Stiftung, with some projects financed by foundations like Soros Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Democracy Program of EU, Eurasia and the Global Fund for Women.

Since its formation in October 1992, PCGI has organized lectures and seminars on the following topics:

• Famous women in world history
• Contemporary status of women (sociological, political, personal aspects of women's lives in Russia)
• Feminist theory and methodology
• Feminist psychology and psychotherapy
• Cultural aspects of gender
• Health and reproductive rights of women

In 1994, PCGI held a Festival of Women's Art and organized an international conference, Feminist Theory and Practice: East-West, in 1995. It also launched a public campaign and brought a legal suit against the Russian version of Playboy, and succeeded in stopping publication of pornographic images of female historical figures of Russia.

Current activities focus on:

• A campaign against trafficking of women
• A project to popularize gender and women's issues in the mass media
• Translation of women's studies classics into Russian (The center already has translated Our Human Rights, a women's human rights manual by Julie Mertus)
• A monthly newsletter Posidelki (the term means "get-togethers") for distribution to over 400 women's organizations throughout the NIS

Five women work in the center on a full- or part-time basis and about 25 others work as volunteers or on temporary contract.

Last updated:    June 2000

A print version of much of the information contained in this NIS Third Sector Organizations section can be found in the The Post-Soviet Handbook (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1999).

CCSI Home	Announcements	Eurasia	Opinion/Analysis	Bookstore	Site Map	Search
	Center for Civil Society International Ideas and information for civic action worldwide