Russian men feel pressure on expensive Women’s Day
Print Edition
IN offices across Russia, the countdown to International Women’s Day is a whirl of last-minute meetings and dashes for gifts as men race to prepare festivities for their female colleagues.
“We’ve sent out loads of e-mails, we’ve analyzed the market, we’ve pooled ideas, and we’ve just got one more meeting ahead of the launch of Operation Women’s Day today,” confided Sergei Krakhmalyev, who works at Rosbank, a major Russian bank.
“This year we’ve decided not to spend money on gifts that are useless, shall we say, but to organize a buffet,” he said.
Krakhmalyev, who is in his 40s, works in a team of eight men and 35 women. He calculates that this year’s celebration will cost about 25,000 rubles (US$430).
“It’s expensive,” he says, “but it’s a Soviet tradition that I think it’s important to keep up.”
A public holiday in the Soviet Union since 1965, March 8 is an opportunity for Russian men to “remember the importance of women” in society, he says.
Office celebrations are held the day before.
This year’s events are set to be relatively low-key in comparison to the oil-boom years, when many companies spared no expense.
“The company used to allocate a big budget for this holiday and took as many as 500 women out to a restaurant,” recalled Irina, who works in human resources at a major Russian company.
“That was before the 2008 economic crisis,” said Irina, 40, who asked not to disclose her surname. “Now the men have a whip-round to buy us flowers and chocolates.”
Nevertheless the holiday “cheers up the atmosphere in the team,” she said.
In Russia, it is also widely seen as a counterpart to the Day of the Defender of the Fatherland, on February 23, which is nominally for those who served in the army but is considered the male equivalent.
In offices, this holiday is often an occasion for celebrations.
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