The Social Meaning of Motherhood in Russia Today

The Soviet state always emphasized and extolled the role of motherhood, or the woman's "function" of motherhood as it was called in the 1920s. Symbolic incentives for bearing children for the state were very well developed, even though material incentives lagged rather far behind (see, for example, 1-4]). Now everything has changed: there is practically no state support, even symbolic, for mothers and children. It is interesting to determine, in this regard, what changes have taken place on the individual level, the motives for bearing children in today's Russia, and the place of child bearing in the overall picture of women's aspirations in life. The object of the present article is a picture of women's child-bearing behavior in our country and their view of this area.