April 27, 2006 Watson Institute Adjunct Professor Patricia Herlihy has been named as the first Louise Doherty Wyant Professor at Emmanuel College, a liberal arts and sciences college founded in Boston in 1919. The endowed professorship was established to support a speaker series on the humanities and an interdisciplinary course integrating art, history, and the humanities.
A historian of Russia, Herlihy is currently engaged in research on dramatically shifting male demographics and their impact on Russian women. As Russia’s male population declines faster than its female population, Russian women increasingly face issues ranging from a scarcity of mates to domestic violence.
Vodka is at the root of Russian women’s current dilemma, Herlihy said in a recent talk at the Institute. Among the highest causes of male deaths in Russia are alcohol and alcohol-related accidents.
Overall, Russia’s current population of 143 million is projected to fall to 100 million by the year 2050, primarily due to low birth rates and high male mortality rates. Life expectancy for Russian men is only 58 years, compared to 72 for women. The relative scarcity of young men compared to women of fertile age has adverse effects on the quality of women’s lives and on the possibility of reversing the speed of population decline. “Not only do women have weaker negotiating power upon entering marriage, but they also wield less power within marriage,” Herlihy said.
As Russian policymakers look to turn the overall population decline around, “they are attempting to bring women back to traditional high birth rates, rather than reducing the number of premature male deaths,” she said.
She suggested policymakers focus instead on emancipating women and reducing male mortality rates with measures aimed at improving health, increasing job opportunities, and creating an environment of hope.
Herlihy has long been associated with the Watson Institute as a professor and former director of the International Relations Program. She has been involved with research on post-Soviet Studies and more recently as part of the Institute’s Crosscutting Initiatives. One of the leading historians of Odessa, Herlihy taught Russian and Soviet history at Brown University until her retirement, although she continues to teach international relations senior seminars. Among her notable publications is The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka and Politics in Late Imperial Russia. She is currently writing a biography of Eugene Schuyler, an American diplomat (1840-1890), under an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship for Emeriti Professors.