Balancing Work and Care in the Post-Soviet Russian Labour Market

Female employment rates in Russia have declined substantially since the end of the Soviet period. At the same time, there has been pronounced change in policies enabling women to balance work and family, or “familial policies.” The availability of child care has contracted sharply, and long maternity and parental leaves have been introduced. This paper describes these changes within the context of Russia in transition, and explores the effect of child care and leave policy on women’s employment using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. We conclude that, over the longer-term, women are more likely to remain employed if they work for enterprises which provide child care and maternity leaves. Yet new, private enterprises are less likely to provide such leaves, painting a somewhat bleak picture of the long-term employment prospects for women in Russia.