The article examines the content of the Draft Law on Equal Rights of Women, prepared by the legal Commission of the Union for Equal Rights of Women, at the request of the State Duma in 1906. Within the framework of this draft law, the first gender expertise of the current legislation in Russia was carried out, during which changes were made to 34 regulatory legal acts. Considering the activities of the “Union for Equal Rights of Women”, which actively advocated for the granting women the right to vote, for the women’s right to higher education and public service, the authors draw attention to the dispersion of the women’s movement in the early XX century. In spite of that it was women organizations and women-representatives who initiated the development of the Draft Law on Women’s Equality and prepared the comparison table of amendments to the current legislature. It is shown in the article that the draft law included a wide range of questions: voting rights, property rights, inheritance and child custody rights, the right to choose a profession and enter the civil service. Amendments to the norms of substantive and procedural criminal and penal enforcement law were also proposed. Based on the analysis of the main discussion in the I State Duma on this draft law the conclusion about a limited support for it on the part of the deputy corps is drawn, which demonstrates the stability of gender stereotypes in the legislative process. read in PDF>>>
