Half a Man Is Better Than None
New York Times, October 31, 2009

Women in Siberia are lobbying to legalize polygamy, a Cambridge University anthropologist reports in The Guardian in London. The critical issue is demography. Population is falling and there are fewer men than women. Caroline Humphrey, the anthropologist, said: "Women say that the legalization of polygamy would be a godsend: it would give them rights to a man's financial and physical support, legitimacy for their children, and rights to state benefits." Meanwhile, some Russian nationalists claim that introducing polygamy in the country would provide husbands for "10 million lonely women" and fill Mother Russia's cradles.