The Educational Potential of Russian Employers: The Gender Aspect

Abstract

The educational potential of prospective and current employers and gender-based differences in its accumulation and use are analyzed from the perspective of the generation of decent jobs based on the data obtained by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service  Rosstat) as part of the “Population Survey on Employment Problems” and “Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey” projects. The study reveals that Russian entrepreneurship is characterized by an expressed gender asymmetry. Professionally employed women have higher educational potential than men, yet less opportunity to play out this competitive advantage as entrepreneurs. The educational potential of Russian employers has been found to be pretty high, but their stratum is too thin yet to be a consistent  generator of decent jobs and too difficult to expand.