Södertörns högskola/Stockholm University

Family policy, employment and gender roles: comparative analysis of Russia and Sweden

In this paper we explore the interaction between family policy, employment and gender roles in Russia and Sweden. The study is based on three clusters of materials: 1) International Social Survey Programme modules on Family and Gender roles II and III (years 1994 and 2002); 2) labour force data; 3) indicators of public social assistance for families. Starting with the idea of gender contract, we explore how family policy attempts to facilitate female participation in paid employment (i.e. ‘official’ contract) are reflected in gender roles attitudes (‘ideal’ contract) and behaviour in a family (‘everyday’ contract). Main results show that family policy in both Sweden and Russia facilitate ‘dual-earner/state carer’ family model, but Sweden puts more emphasis on dual-caring and flexible work arrangements for women. Although the ‘official’ contracts were similar, support for traditional gender roles was much higher and more uniform in Russia than in Sweden. In Russia discrepancies between gender role attitudes and actual family arrangements were much higher than in Sweden, especially in 1994, which corresponded to major restructuring in social and economical sphere. The findings reveal that family policy is instrumental to facilitate female employment, but does not necessary bring changes in family and gender attitudes.