Abstract

The headline stories regarding gender in post-Soviet Russia have concerned women’s employment prospects in Russia’s liberalised economy, which were initially presumed to be dire, and the collapse of men’s life expectancy. While women’s employment held up better than expected, men’s superior status in the labour market was preserved. The fact that men seemed less able to “survive” the transformation, in the literal sense of the term, therefore presented a paradox. This chapter examines the debates surrounding gender differences in responses to Russia’s transformation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In doing so, it frequently refers to the Soviet legacy, which is indispensible to understanding contemporary gender issues.