Men and women in the workplace: VCIOM: Russia Public Opinion Research Center

Have you ever experienced unfair treatment due to your gender during the employment process or in the workplace?

(close-ended question, up to 2 answers, % of total respondents)

Digital generation (Zoomers, 2001 and later)

Younger Millennials (1992—2000)

Older Millennials (1982—1991)

Reform generation (1968—1981)

Stagnation generation (1948—1967)

Thaw generation (before 1947)

Yes, both during the employment process and at work

Don’t know

Photo: Zoonar/Imago/ТАСС

Men and women in the workplace

Inequality in salary, status, privileges, attitudes of the superior towards men and women at work are uncommon today.

03.07.2025

IN BRIEF

65% of Russians say women and men have equal career opportunities, 23% say men have more opportunities.;

16% of Russians have faced gender-based discrimination in the workplace, 83% have not faced that.

MOSCOW, 3 July 2025. The VCIOM Analytical Center presents the findings of a survey on gender discrimination in the workplace conducted among Russians.

Stereotypes and reality

Two-thirds of Russians consider that men and women have equal opportunities to be successful in career and to get a good job in the modern Russia. Twenty-three percent of respondents say men have more job opportunities (vs 4% who point out female dominance).

Most of Russians (87% of men and 80% of women) have never experienced gender-based discrimination at work. They are basically Reform generation, Stagnation generation, and Digital generation.

The gender pay gap is one of the most common forms of discrimination. According to Rosstat, in 2023 the average female monthly salary was 61.1k rubles in Russia (vs 87.7k among men)^[1]. However, it is more important to compare salaries for a similar amount of work: 16% of respondents report their coworker of the opposite gender received a higher salary for the same amount of work; it was reported by 13% of men vs 19% of women.

Two-thirds of Russians (65%) have not noticed any gender-based discrimination in the workplace; about 11% point out gender discrimination without direct personal exposure.

Who is more likely to experience gender-based discrimination and actively speak on the problem?

Millennials: Younger and Older millennials tend to point out gender inequality. Digital generation is poorly aware of the topic as they are just starting their career path.
Metropolitan residents: residents of Moscow and St Petersburg show high awareness of the gender discrimination.
Russians with low income.

Who is less likely to experience gender-based discrimination but actively speaks on the topic?

Residents of million-plus cities.

Career barriers for women

A year ago more than half of Russians pointed out unequal career opportunities for men and women. However, almost three-quarters of respondents failed to cite any reasons for that and said there were no gender obstacles for career growth in Russia. This might be indicative of insufficient reflection on the problem (as not all the Russians who recognize such barriers understand the reasons) and poor coverage of the topic by mass media.

As unfavorable factors hindering women from career advancement respondents often cited childbirth and maternity leave (10%).

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted June 22, 2025. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of June 22, 2025: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7249; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0179; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1304.

In your opinion, who has more opportunities to achieve career success, to get a good job in Russia today? (close-ended question, one answer, % of total respondents)
	Total	Men	Women
Men and women equally	65	68	63
Men	23	17	28
Women	4	6	3
Don’t know	8	9	6

	In your opinion, who has more opportunities to achieve career success, to get a good job in Russia today? (close-ended question, one answer, % of total respondents)
		Total	Digital generation (Zoomers, 2001 and later)	Younger Millennials (1992—2000)	Older Millennials (1982—1991)	Reform generation (1968—1981)	Stagnation generation (1948—1967)	Thaw generation (before 1947)
Men and women equally		65	72	63	62	67	66	62
Men		23	25	26	24	25	19	21
Women		4	3	6	8	4	1	2
Don’t know		8	0	5	6	4	14	15

	In your opinion, who has more opportunities to achieve career success, to get a good job in Russia today? (close-ended question, one answer, % of total respondents)
		Total	Moscow and St Petersburg	Million-plus cities	500-950k inhabitants	100-500k	Under 100k	Rural area
Men and women equally		65	61	63	66	64	69	66
Men		23	29	28	23	27	19	19
Women		4	4	5	4	4	4	5
Don’t know		8	6	4	7	5	8	10

Have you ever faced gender injustice during the employment process or in the workplace? (close-ended question, % of total respondents)
	Total	Men	Women
Yes, both during the employment process and at work	16	12	19
No	83	87	80
Don’t know	1	1	1

	Percentage reporting unequal career opportunities	Percentage facing workplace gender discrimination	Delta
Total	27	15	12
Men	23	12	11
Women	31	18	13
Digital generation (2001 and later)	28	15	13
Younger Millennials (1992—2000)	32	22	10
Older Millennials (1982—1991)	33	20	13
Reform generation (1968—1981)	28	13	15
Stagnation generation (1948—1967)	21	13	8
Thaw generation (before 1947)	23	10	13
Residents of Moscow and St Petersburg	33	20	13
Residents of million-plus cities	32	14	18
Residents of cities with 500-999k inhabitants	26	13	13
Residents of cities with 100-500k inhabitants	31	19	12
Residents of cities under 100k	23	16	7
Rural area residents	24	12	12
Good financial situation	21	14	7
Average financial situation	28	14	14
Poor financial situation	35	22	13
Secondary education	18	17	1
Secondary special education	27	12	15
Higher education	29	17	12

Have you ever found out that your colleague of the opposite gender is paid more for the same amount of work than you, or not? (close-ended question, one answer, % of total respondents)
	Total	Men	Women
Yes	16	13	19
No	80	83	77
Don’t know	4	4	4

In your opinion, are there any barriers that hinder female career, or not? If so, name them. (open-ended question, up to 3 answers, % of total respondents)
	Total
Physiological reasons
Children / childbearing and upbringing / childcare	6
Pregnancy / maternity leave / opportunity to have a maternity leave / they are afraid of taking a maternity leave	4
She is a woman / female nature / female traits / physiology	1
Age / childbirth age	1
Cultural reasons, stereotypes, discrimination
Mentality/ perceptions of women in society / public opinion / prejudiced attitude to women / prejudices	3
Demographic policies / not enough support for women	2
Gender-based discrimination / patriarchy / male-dominated society / inequality	2
Male professions / only men are hired for certain positions	1
They appoint men to managing positions / glass ceiling	1
Lack/no education / unavailable education	1
Female salaries are lower than male ones / low salaries, no money	1
Situation in families, distribution of family duties
Family / marriage / family status	3
Sick leave/childcare leave / children get ill very often	1
Daily routine / housekeeping	1
Lack of free kindergartens, extra-curricular activities, day-care facilities / kindergarten business hours	1
Psychological reasons
Personal traits / they themselves	1
Idleness	1
Other	6
Nothing hinders	63
Don’t know	13

Author: Ivan Lekontsev

^[1] Rosstat: https://rosstat.gov.ru/storage/mediabank/Wum_Man_2024.pdf.

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