Our population is heterogeneous and split into groups according to such features as sex, race, nationality, language, religion , etc. One of the most stable distinctions is related to the sex and defined in modern science by the term "gender features". Gender differences are not somewhat neutral but they generate the inequality for men and women in their access to economic, social and political resources. For the purpose of eliminating such situation it is necessary to pursue a certain social and economic policy which should be structured on the basis of gender approach. With this approach all actions or processes get assessment in view of their impact on men and women with their specific features instead of their impact on the population in general.

Despite a whole number of enacted international and Russian documents the integration of a concept of gender policy into public minds and life practice appears to be rather difficult. The existing gender policy, which construes two sex as different and unequal, is actually a system of power and domination. It is very hard to alter the existing gender policy and gender ideology as a basis thereof , which allows to socially justify all gender distinctions and stratification, including a "natural mission"

But we believe that there are all pre-requisites for the gender approach to be integrated into social policy and work practice of both non-commercial organizations (NCO) and government authorities in the Federal Volga region.

Equal rights and opportunities is the most important principle of democracy and constitutional states. The way towards the real equality lies through the awareness by every individual of his personal rights as well as development of the human rights initiatives and institutions. 70 years of totalitarianism have resulted in the mass legal illiteracy of people in Russia. The Russians started to join the international human rights movement after the perestroika. Big role here was played by such international organizations as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International as well as feminine organizations Equality Now, Center for Women‘s Global Leadership, Network of East-West Women, Vital Voices, ООН UNIFEM Program and other), which introduced the leaders of the Russian social movement to the practice of human rights activities, efficient methods of the legal education, successful strategies of advancing and protecting the rights of various elements and groups of population.

The feminine public organization FEMINA has been functioning in the city Naberezhnye Chelny since the beginning of the 90-s. Date of its official registration is May 1992. Members of this organization have been actively participating in the international human rights training programs. Learning of theoretical knowledge and analyzing of other countries‘ practices allowed to develop the methods and forms of people‘s legal education specific for the situation of today‘s Russia.

In 2000 was developed a method of legal training as a model of social technology for development of the feminine Grassroots legal aid activities.

This method was successfully tried out first at the territory of Tatarstan Republic and then with involvement of the women‘s representatives from eight subjects of the Volga Federal region. Such training appeared to be an effective tool for the legal education and civil enlightenment providing for the high potential self-evolution .

The key training results include the development of human rights activities in the number of feminine non-commercial organizations, training of the staffing and research resources. In the Federal Volga region we carried out the human rights studies in such areas as labor and employment, health and reproduction rights, political involvement, domestic violence and other. We also developed the strategies of solving the identified problems.

In October 2002, two FEMINA representatives took part in the program of the US organization Vital Voices dedicated to the trafficking problem, where they were introduced to unique practice of the receiving organization in three main areas: Women‘s Involvement in Political Life, Women‘s Involvement in Business and Feminine Entrepreneurship , Anti-trafficking and Human Rights . Thus aroused an idea of a joint project. Legal training was used as a basis for that project while its content was enriched by theoretical and practical achievements of our American colleagues in the area of advancement of women‘s rights, improvement of self-awareness and status of women.

In 2004 the project Towards the Gender Equality, which had been developed by the Public Women‘s Organization FEMINA in partnership with the organization of Global Feminine Leadership Vital Voices, was supported by the US Agency on International Development (USAID) in the framework of the "Partner" Program, accomplished by the International Research and Scientific Exchange Council (IREX). This Partner Program provided for unique opportunity to materialize the idea of combining the successful American and Russian practices into the uniform technology of development the feminine human rights initiatives and promoting thereof in the subjects of Federal Volga Region (FVR).

The key objectives of this project provided in the first line for the legal education of women and development of the feminine human rights initiatives in the FVR subjects though training of women representing the various organizations, and transfer of the human rights training methods in the second line.

The project members were represented by 26 women from 15 cities of the FVR subjects, who had been selected on a competitive basis. Geographically our attendees were representing such cities as Nizhny Novgorod, Izhevsk, Kazan, Perm, Balakovo, Engels, Saratov, Yoshkar-Ola, Saransk, Cheboksary, Gorodetz, Dzerzhinsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and Karagai village in Perm region. Thus in our project were involved 9 FVR subjects out of 14: Republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Mari-El, Mordovia, Udmurtia, Chuvashia and regions of Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov and Perm. Average age of female participants was 30.

The project provided for the three-stage legal training course. Each stage comprised an interactive session in the city Naberezhnye Chelny and then a period of independent work of our participants at their domiciles. Beginning from the second session we had involved into this project Mrs. Lisa Johnson-Firs and Susan Wobst, the experts of American partnership organization Vital Voices.

In the course of this project its members had been introduced to the theory of law and chose those aspects which were close to their interests or life experience. Then they explored the situations in their regions by all available means and developed a plan of potential actions based on available resources in the regions. Already during the course of training every female participant would transfer step by step the obtained knowledge and skills to the other 3 or 4 women in her organization, thus involving them in her activities.

That was the way we had formed the groups of female activists, who perceived not only their rights, but also capabilities as well as mechanisms of correct advancement and protection of women‘s rights. We collected a vast research material, identifying the problem situations and the scale thereof and allowing to devise proposals to overcome such problems.

Almost concurrently with initiation of the project Towards the Gender Equality the US Embassy supported a project Include into the Scope of Attention which purpose was aimed to draw the attention of Russian human rights organizations and some government authorities to the principles of gender equality as a necessary provision of not only solving the social problems but also establishment of a civil society.

Selecting the participants we gave preferences to the men with all other conditions being equal . For the project had been selected 27 representatives from the ministries and departments along with human rights organizations of the FVR. The geographic research area comprised the above mentioned regions and added cities of Samara, Ulyanovsk, Neftekamsk and Solikamsk.

Combination of two projects and two groups ( male and female) imparted to conducted studies a true gender nature, enriched and diversified a project. It permitted to take into account a wide range of experiences and opinions during discussions of such subjects as sex discrimination in the market of labor and employment, reproductive rights of women and men, health rights, gender weaknesses of the Matrimonial legislation, right of living without violence, sex asymmetries of the pension reform, etc.

Problems of men‘s discrimination have not only never been a subject of public discussions but as a rule, have never been realized by men themselves. It may be explained by the fact that for many years the sex discrimination in our country, if ever been acknowledged, was mainly related to women. New knowledge with regard to the gender equality acquired by members of the men‘s group allowed them to expand the scope and improve efficiency of the human rights practice. It also helped to respond to such pressing questions as "Why is the men‘s life in our country one of the shortest in the world? Why does the Russian Constitution acknowledge the values of motherhood and deny the protection of fatherhood ? What is the impact of hazardous labor conditions on the man‘s reproductive function? Why is growing the number of married couples where husbands are infertile? Implications of adopted regulations and covenants in the area of labor, pension, social insurance and family relations for men and women" and other.

With support by the Government of Tatarstan after accomplishment of this project we held an International Conference in Kazan on the subject of Integration of Gender Approach into Social Policy of the Region, which was attended by the scholars and expert defenders of human rights from Moscow along with the delegations and experts from the Volga region where they‘ve also accumulated a positive expertise of defending the rights of people suffering from the sex discrimination.

This project also resulted in publication of a book comprising the results of studies, reports made by experts and conference attendees along with the FVR Gender Development Program which had become a collective product of the feminine and human rights organizations in the FVR.

In the long-term perspective this project is designed for the establishment of pre-requisites for the materialization of principles of equal rights and opportunities both for men and women, which will serve to the improvement of human right standards in out country.