Since Russian society is multicultural, the experiences of women in Russia vary significantly across ethnic, religious, and social lines.

The law was supposed to help the tax revenue for Russia by banning the allowance of noble families to divide their land and wealth among multiple children.

The law mandated that if a man was survived by unmarried daughters, the eldest girl would inherit his estate, while the remaining sisters would divide his movable property.

In 1753, a decree was issued to assure that noble families could secure their daughter's inheritance of land by making it a part of the dowry that she would have access to once she was married.

During planting and harvest time, when help was needed in the fields, women worked with their husbands to plow, sow seeds, then collect and prepare the crops.

Having a son ensured that the family name would continue as well as any property they might own, though as Petrine reforms came into effect, it began to be equally profitable to have a girl.

Along with members of the Saint-Petersburg literati, such as Evgenia Konradi (1838–1898), they petitioned universities to educate women and wrote to prominent male figures to support their cause.

In March 1917 the Provisional Government, which had replaced Emperor Nicholas II's autocracy, granted Russia's women the right to vote and to hold political office.

Abortion became illegal, homosexuality was declared a crime, legal differences between legitimate and illegitimate children were restored, and divorce once again became difficult to attain.

[44] Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (Russian: Валентина Владимировна Терешкова; born 6 March 1937) was the first woman to fly in space, having been selected from more than four-hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot the Vostok 6 mission on 16 June 1963.

The Constitution made clear the multiple roles of a woman: to educate herself, and to work for the benefit of society, as well as, to be a mother and raise the next generation of Soviet citizens.

Struggling companies often[quantify] fire women to avoid paying child-care benefits or granting maternity leave, as the law still requires.

Despite the proliferation of such groups and programs, in the mid-1990s most Russians (including many women) remained contemptuous of their efforts, which many[quantify] regard as a kind of Western subversion of traditional (Soviet and even pre-Soviet) social values.

After the 1991 fall of the USSR, many women who had previously worked as engineers, scientists and teachers, had to resort to prostitution in order to feed themselves and their families.

A smaller organization, the Russian Women's Party, ran as part of an unsuccessful coalition with several other splinter-parties in the 1995 elections.

Numerous protests have been organized, and representatives have gone to the Chechen capital, Groznyy, to demand the release of Russian prisoners and to locate missing soldiers.

[57] In 1999, there were only four (at most) women named as part of the Nezavisimaya gazeta's monthly ranking of influential Russian politicians, the highest-ranking being Tatyana Dyachenko, the daughter of Boris Yeltsin.

The women of the Duma are frequently photographed putting on makeup on the floor of the legislature, as well as being kissed on the hand by their male counterparts, to name two examples of their gendered portrayal.

The same study also concluded that the 2017 response against gender equality among the "high echelons of power" was stronger (38%), comparatively, than in 2016, when only 28% of respondents submitted these sentiments.

The move was widely seen as part of a state-sponsored turn to traditional values under Putin and shift away from liberal notions of individual and human rights.

Human Rights Watch responded extremely critically to this legislation, presenting recommendations to the Russian legislature to reverse course by increasing protections for victims of domestic violence.

To substantiate this recommendation, Human Rights Watch cites an independent study which concludes Russian women are three times as likely to encounter violence at the hands of a family member or loved one than a stranger.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch observed that only 3% of domestic violence cases in Russia go to trial, and notes that the 2017 decriminalization makes it even harder to prosecute abusers.

[68] A 2012-2016 effort to craft a bill which allowed for victims of domestic violence to file restraining orders against their abusers, as well as fund shelters and "guarantee judicial and psychological help," was ultimately rejected.

[68] In 2019, a group of women's rights activists and female politicians, including Vice-Speaker of Russia's Federation Council Galina Karelova, promoted another bill against domestic violence.

[70] In March 2020, Putin signed a bill increasing the severity of punishments for breaking quarantine, which include fines up to US$640 (more for companies and public officials).

If their actions caused others health issues or even death, those who break quarantine would receive a minimum of 5-7 extra years in prison and fines worth up to US$4,800.

[71] Meanwhile, under Russia's domestic violence legislation, only abuse that results in a victim's hospitalization is criminal; first-time offenders are punished with a fine worth merely US$88.

As in other former communist countries, the fall of the state planned economy after the collapse of the USSR, led to increased socioeconomic problems, such as unemployment, insecurity and crime.

Russian women are also lured abroad with sham promises of jobs such as dancers, models, waitresses or domestic helpers and end up caught in forced prostitution situations.