The zhenskie sovety (shortened to zhensovety) were women's councils set up in localities of the Soviet Union after 1958.
[2][3] The zhensovety declined under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, and were revived in under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika.
[3] However, they were not welcomed by the emerging feminist movements in the USSR, who saw then as part of the state apparatus, harbouring the nomenklatura (high-ranking officials) and not fully supporting women as the subjects of political change.
[2] Genia Brownins describes the zhensovety as a top-down affair before perestroika, and the council leaders tended to be male, and CPSU members.
In October 1993, the electoral bloc Zhenshchiny Rossii (Women of Russia) was formed, gaining support and strength from the zhensovety.