Cherchez la femme: Women as supporting actors in the Russian labour market

It is well known that women have inferior labour market opportunities in post-communist Russia, but little is known about their role as labour market intermediaries. This paper examines how women compare to men in this role. We base our analysis on qualitative and quantitative data, gathered in the Russian city of Samara in 1999. We find that women are more effective than men in helping their contacts into jobs, but that these jobs are lower paid than those provided by men. Our explanation is that while women's position in the labour market restricts their access to information about good jobs, their leading role in the household implies intervention in the lives of others, including as persistent labour market intermediaries.