Global Responses to Population Ageing: Populism, Pronatalism, and the Politics of Care

Book launch & panel discussion: Global Responses to Population Ageing: Populism, Pronatalism, and the Politics of Care with Dr Anna Shadrina (University of Liverpool), Prof Karen Glaser (King’s College London), and Prof Gulnaz Sharafutdinova (King’s College London).

Hosted by UCL’s FRINGE Centre, this event marks the publication of Anna Shadrina’s new book, The Babushka Phenomenon: Older women and the Political Sociology of Ageing in Russia (UCL Press, 2025).

This book explores ageing as a socio-political phenomenon shaped by local responses to declining fertility and the pluralisation of family forms. In many parts of the world, women combine paid work and motherhood by outsourcing care and domestic labour to paid nannies and domestic workers. The case of Russia shows how post-socialist welfare cutbacks have positioned older women as essential yet unpaid and undervalued family caregivers.

In Russia, the norm of grandmothers’ active involvement in childcare, housing support, and housework has shaped the marginal social position of the babushka - a post-professional and post-sexual member of society who, paradoxically, is perceived as a recipient of social benefits rather than an active contributor. The book demonstrates how older women’s practical and financial support enables younger generations to navigate post-socialist insecurities and to combine paid labour with family life.

The event will be chaired by Prof. Alena Ledeneva, UCL SSEES.