ABSTRACT
Russia’s attempted economic transformation has been a traumatic experience. As this book has shown, men and women have responded differently to the challenges thrown up by their new environment. Employment outcomes have also varied by gender, though the extent to which this results from differences in male and female behaviour is, as will be discussed below, open to question. In economic terms, men have preserved and perhaps even increased their labour market advantage. In social terms, however, women have proved themselves to be more adaptable than men, and less susceptible to demoralisation, despair, drink, and, ultimately, early death. We have argued that the key to understanding this somewhat paradoxical outcome lies in the household division of labour and its associated norms.
