ABSTRACT
The economic reforms which have accompanied Russia’s emergence as an independent state have reintroduced the concept of officially acknowledged unemployment for the first time in some sixty years. At the same time, the price liberalization which kicked off the period of transition to a market economy in Russia has produced a massive drop in living standards for many families. It is, however, generally recognized that, in the chaotic period of change which has followed the demise of the USSR, women have been the major losers.
