Do institutions matter? Occupational gender segregation at labor market entry in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

"This chapter studies how horizontal gender differences and vertical inequalities at labor market entry have been changing in Russia from Soviet to post-Soviet times. On theoretical grounds, we expect that major institutional and cultural shifts were not gender-neutral. Particularly, we relate our discussion to features of educational and employment systems, family policies and gender-specific cultural aspects. Using retrospective data from Russian Education and Employment Survey (EES), we analyze the sex segregation across industry sectors and the gender gap in job authority for labor market entrants in the Soviet period (1965-91) and the post-Soviet period (1991-2005). Our findings reveal that the horizontal gender differences and conditional vertical inequalities at labor market entry already persisted during the Soviet period, and this is despite the proclaimed equality principles. Withal, these gender differences and inequalities even grew after liberalization reforms in contempt of women's gains in education in the recent decades. We argue that rapid changes in economy and social life have been accompanied by new emerging forms of gender-oriented culture. In turn, these changes disposed male and female entrants to enter occupational fields in more separated way than before, and shaped employers' and (female) employees' preferences and decisions, thereby affecting females' likelihood for entering higher-status jobs." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Kosyakova, Y. & Kurakin, D. (2015): Do institutions matter? Occupational gender segregation at labor market entry in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia. In: H.- P. Blossfeld, J. Skopek, M. Triventi & S. Buchholz (Hrsg.) (2015): Gender, education and employment : an international comparison of school-to-work transitions, p. 304-324.