The Babushka Phenomenon

‘The Babushka Phenomenon offers a nuanced and insightful approach to gendered aging in the Soviet post-socialist context. While older women are often overlooked in research, this is especially the case in societies undergoing rapid social, political, and cultural transformation. By listening to the stories of this seemingly “unimportant” group, Anna Shadrina uncovers their “invisible” labour and selfhood through an intersectional lens of gender, age and class. This book will be of particular interest to readers engaged with questions of post-socialist gender hierarchies, care and citizenship’.
Yulia Gradskova, Associate Professor, Södertörn University, Stockholm

‘This powerful and moving book opens a lid on a trope little known to western sociologists and gerontologists: that of the Russian Babushka. Anna Shadrina takes us on a fascinating journey, via accounts of Soviet and post-Soviet history, culture, films and the lived experience of a large and diverse caste of older women themselves, into the paradoxical norms and expectations associated with this role. Shadrina explores babushkas as grandmothers, mothers and daughters, neighbours, citizens, workers and sexual subjects, among other things, and demonstrates the ways social change not only impacts on the most vulnerable members of a society but is underpinned by a solid and enduring stratum of sexism and ageism. In this highly readable work, Shadrina makes a theoretically rich, and exquisitely sensitive contribution to a more global sociology of ageing and gender.’
Susan Pickard, University of Liverpool