Adapting to Russia's New Labour Market: Gender and Employment Behaviour by Sarah Ashwin (review)

Abstract

184 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 2OO9 inter-penetrating, public/private spheres and spaces (her analysis similarly calls into question simple distinctions of conformity/dissidence), and conceive such complex, intriguing phenomena of Soviet social life in contemporary reflexive terms of a 'second world (vtoroi mir) overlapping with and existing alongside official life,which provided both inspiration and counterpoint' (p. 246). The final chapter, by Susan Costanzo, examines the role of the late 1950's popular press as interlocutor as well as intermediary in social debates on the value of art in personal development and collective progress, and reveals telling anxieties regarding the purpose, and danger, ofmaking private conduct an issue of public concern. The volume is a timelyand compelling critical examination of the range of strategies by which social actors ? both 'ordinary citizens' and state officials ? negotiated, manipulated, subverted and ingeniously accommodated formal structures in their pursuit of personal goals, in the process obscuring or rede fining the distinction between commodities, actions, interests and outcomes private and public. Itwill be required reading for scholars and students of Soviet cultural and social history. School of History Nick Baron Universityof Nottingham Ashwin, Sarah (ed.). Adapting toRussia's New LabourMarket: Gender andEmploy mentBehaviour.Roudedge Contemporary Russia and East Europe Series, 5. Roudedge, London and New York, 2006. xi + 228 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. ?70.00. Following ten years of catastrophic decline, the Russian economy has enjoyed ten years of rapid growth. However, the benefits of growth, which has been driven by risingworld prices of energy and metals, have been very unevenly distributed. The erosion of pensions and welfare benefits means that the population is increasingly dependent on the ability of household members to earn wages, but formany this ability is severely restricted by the conditions of Russia's 'wild' labour market. Although average wages have almost doubled, they have still not reached the level achieved before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Wage inequality reached Latin American proportions in the 1990s and has continued to increase, so a substantial proportion of the population is stillnot able to earn a livingwage, let alone support any dependents. About one-sixth of the population stilldoes not have a money income sufficient tomeet their basic physiological survival needs. While the non-payment ofwages has declined from the epidemic proportions of the 1990s, at the end of 2006 workers in large and medium organizations were still reported to be owed $200 million in unpaid wages. The revised Labour Code inprinciple extends protection toworkers by regulating working conditions, limiting working hours, providing guaranteed overtime pay, holidays and sick and maternity leave, but these protective measures are routinely ignored by employers and are rarely enforced. The perennial REVIEWS 185 question raised byRussia's unrestrained capitalism is,how do Russian workers survive? This is the question direcdy addressed by Sarah Ashwin and her colleagues in this timely book, which focuses on gender differences in employment behaviour. Russian women earn about two-thirds as much as do Russian men. While most Russian commentators regard the limited earning opportunities of Russian women as a result of their lower commitment to the labour market, Western feminists tend to regard the disadvantages ofwomen as a result of the gender discrimination which is rife inRussia's labour market. Ashwin and her colleagues are not content with either of these facile explanations and have undertaken systematic research into gender differences in employment behaviour in order to uncover the subjective and objective determinants of such differences. Their research isbased on a longitudinal study ofmatched samples of 120men and 120women in fourRussian citieswho, at the begin ning of the research, were in a precarious labour market situation: graduating from educational institutions; working in derelict enterprises and organiza tions; registered unemployed; and in receipt of social assistance. Respondents were regularly interviewed four times over a period of two years. The inter view materials were then subjected to systematic analysis by the research teams from theperspective of gender discrimination, work orientations, labour market behaviour, the use of networks and career trajectories, which are the focus of substantive chapters of this book. The framework of the research is laid out in two introductory chapters by Ashwin, which review the research methodology and...