“God Help Those Who Help Themselves”. Pragmatic Individualism as a Discursive Strategy for Normalizing the Biographies of Young Middle-Class Women

Abstract

The article deals with how young Russian women from the educated, urban middle class discursively draw up their life project. The authors analyze the categories and discourses that middle-class young females use to substantiate their choices related to family and work. The article also examines how they understand social support of the state as a source of their well-being.

The authors show that urban middle-class young women do discursive work to normalize their life stories, bringing them into line with the cultural notions of respectability that are characteristic of the middle class and its lifestyle. This is a way of producing the self as a subject embracing emotional work of bringing one’s feelings and speaking about them in accordance with conventionally set cultural and class ideas of decency.

The article is based on biographical interviews with women (N=45) representing three generations. Analysis is focused on the interviews with young women under 35 who have children. Publications on thematic Internet forums and social media groups devoted to motherhood were used as additional information sources.

Based on the analysis of the interviews, the authors describe the discourse of pragmatic individualism implying individual decisions based on rational choice. The discourse represents explanatory models of various life choices made by young women. The idea of searching for self and striving to fulfill oneself in different spheres of life is one of the leitmotivs of this discourse, which requires individuals to constantly develop personal and professional skills. The article shows how the discourse of pragmatic individualism works in the narratives of young women about their strategies concerning employment, family, and government assistance.