Gender equality was one of the many promises of the Soviet Union fell way short of realizing. In more ways that can be recounted here. But interestingly, women played an important role in municipal governance. Women sat on soviets and did most of the mundane and humdrum administrative work. Most of these women who occupied these unpaid, and often thankless positions, were pillars in their community–doctors, principals, and others with local authority and stature. This trend continues in post-Soviet local administration. Women rarely rise to the upper echelons of power. But they wield it at the local level–the very backbone of the system. Why do women occupy these positions? How does it impact politics? The Eurasian Knot turned to Valeria Umanets, a new postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh to learn more. Guest: Valeria Umanets is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include women and politics, non-democratic political institutions, historical political economy, and post-Communist states. Valeria is currently completing a book manuscript based on her dissertation, “Political Participation of Women in the Soviet Union and Russia: From State-Sponsored Feminism to Putin’s Machismo.”