Social Policy Discourse as a Frame of a New Repertoire of Gender Contracts for Wives of the Mobilized

The article studies a model of social policy aimed at supporting families of the mobilized in Russia as a tool for promoting a preferred gender contract. Families of the mobilized, having no experience of interacting with the institute of the army in conditions of military conflict, are forced to adapt to the requirements of the state in a short time. The context of the study: family policy is becoming a priority in the Russian Federation not only as support for socially vulnerable families of SVO participants, but also as an ideological tool for forming a new balance of power and gender relations in Russian families affected by militarization. The study uses critical discourse analysis that allows us to research the discourse of social support measures in the official statements of lawmakers, evaluating these measures from the perspective of the wives in thematic online chats mobilized as collective discourses. As a result of the analysis, family policy in relation to families of the mobilized is characterized as traditional and paternalistic, it is shown that there remains a gap between the normative concepts of state aid and the measures being implemented. The wives of those mobilized note their satisfaction with the monetary level of support as well as the difficulty of obtaining indirect benefits, and the system's inability to provide personalized assistance. The repertoire of women's gender contracts is differentiated on an interactive level, the importance of market participation for Russian women is consolidated, and the role of the state in a woman's willingness to serve the army institute is small.