Report No: ACS7863 Public Disclosure Authorized . Russian Federation Russian Federation Gender Assessment Public Disclosure Authorized . February 2014 . ECSP3 EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA Public Disclosure Authorized . Public Disclosure Authorized Standard Disclaimer: . This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Copyright Statement: . The material in this publication is copyrighted. 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Acknowledgments The work prepared under this task was led and supervised by Ana Maria Munoz Boudet (Senior Gender Specialist, TTL, ECSP3) and Josefina Posadas (Economist, co-TTL, PRMGE), and comprising Andrea Atencio (Consultant, PRMGE), Olga Emelyanova (Research Analyst, ECSP3), Julianna Flanagan (Junior Professional Associate, ECSP3), Elisa Gamberoni (Economist, AFTP1), and Sarosh Sattar (Senior Economist, ECSP3). Specific focus papers were authored by Josefina Posadas and Andrea Atencio (PRMGE), Tami Aritomi (consultant ECSP3), and Irina Kalabhakina (Department of Economics, Moscow State University). The report benefited from guidance from Carolina Sanchez-Paramo (Sector Manager, ECSP3) and from comments provided by Stepan Titov (Senior Economist, ECSP3), Elizaveta Perova (Economist, LCSPP), and Reena Badiani (Economist, EASHS). Administrative support was provided by Helena Makarenko (ECSP3). Overview An egalitarian socialist legacy and relatively high and growing levels of income –particularly over the last decade– have translated into fairly equal gender outcomes in Russia along many dimensions. There are no significant differences in education levels between men and women, and in recent years more young women have completed post-secondary education than young men. Girls outperform boys in reading in standardized exams and do as well as them in math and science. At first glance, women do not seem to have difficulties in transitioning from school to work or remaining employed over the life cycle. And female labor force participation is significantly above the levels observed in other countries in Europe and Central Asia, as well as in the OECD. As the World Bank (2012a) has shown, economic development brings institutional improvements such as education, which in turn lead to gender equality in some outcome domains. But whether these positive impacts of development on gender outcomes are strong or weak depend on how well-oiled is the engine of economic development, e.g. how well markets and service delivery institutions function, how supportive of change the cultural environment is. Thus, in reality, many gender imbalances do not disappear with economic development. The Russian Federation is no exception. While on surface high education and high levels of female participation in labor markets may suggest gender equality in labor market outcomes, high sector segregation and gender income gaps remain, with women earning on average 70 percent less than men. And, while improvements in health delivery services have had a positive impact in reducing maternal mortality levels, they have not been sufficient to reduce excess male mortality, deeply rooted in social norms about gender and a strong division of gender roles. This new assessment of gender equality issues in Russia seeks to gauge the progress in all the domains of outcomes during the last 10 years, and to further understand the main causes behind the persisting gender gaps identified in the country. This assessment builds on the analytical framework proposed by the World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development (World Bank 2012a) to provide a general overview of gender issues in Russia, and it builds on literature at the frontier in economics to go deeper in the two selected topics: adult mortality and gender gap in pay. This new assessment takes on board the difficult challenge of serving a wide audience, both internal and external to The World Bank Group, from policy makers to academics and experts. On the one hand, internally, it seeks to inform the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) discussions and to support World Bank teams in their efforts to improve gender attention in their projects; and thus this report provides both an up-to-date overview of comprehensive selection gender outcomes in key priority areas.1 The analysis builds on and expands previous work on gender issues at the national, regional, and global levels (Paci 2002, World Bank 2004, 2012a and 2012b) and it complements other analytical work on jobs, economic mobility and aging in Russia. In this way, this report also aims at serving key national stakeholders involved in policy making, to both integrate gender into their activities or to introduce new specific policies needed to overcome the persistent gender imbalances. On the other hand, this report 1 Part 1. Gender Inequality in Russia: A Panorama. 4 also seeks to reach academics and experts interested in gender, labor markets, and health, by providing new analytical insights about the determinants of persistent gender differences in labor market outcomes, and male mortality. Identifying these determinants allows to better target policy interventions aimed at increasing gender equality. To serve this diverse audience, the gender assessment is composed of four different pieces organized in two groups. The first two pieces of work update the early 2000s general panorama of gender equality in the Russian Federation and provide a general overview of gender issues in the three dimensions of gender equality: endowments, economic opportunities, and voice and agency (World Bank 2012a). The first document offers a panorama of the situation across these areas based on the most recent and multiple data sources for Russia; while the second piece offers a summary of the scholarly production and existing literature by national researchers on gender issues. The second part of the assessment includes two pieces focusing on the analysis of critical gender gaps in Russia –that have persisted over the decade and beyond with little change- by exploring the causes of excess male mortality from a gender and social norms perspective and of the prevalent and persistent gender wage gap in the country. Income growth has some influence in shifting these patterns but does not eliminate the gaps in the sectors or occupations where women and men work, nor the resulting earnings gap; and has not appear to have affected the propensity of Russian men to engage in risky behavior, or change specific habits related to their early mortality patterns. Higher gender equality can boost economic development through its positive impact on productivity growth, the quality of institutions, and the welfare of the next generation (World Bank, 2012a). Understanding the root causes of persistent gender inequalities and designing policies that tackle those can therefore have a high payoff. The World Bank can contribute to this process by adequately evaluating and addressing gender issues within its portfolio. This Gender Assessment will provide new and useful information and analysis that will help teams achieve this goal. The main messages resulting from this analysis were presented to government representatives, civil society organizations, and the research community on December 2, 2013 and triggered a dialogue at the national-level dialogue, highlighting the need to focus on gender inequality in policy action, and which should be followed by the upcoming national and regional technical pieces and policy instruments. Main Messages A general look at the Russian Federation situation on gender equality over the last two decades seems to indicate that the country maintains high levels of gender equality in many areas. However, a more observant look reveals that some gender gaps have proven to be very resilient to change. The positive trends in education and employment already identified in the mid-2000s, when the World Bank produced a series of reports covering gender issues in Russia have continued (Baskakova et al. 2006, 5 World Bank 2004)2 are now stagnant; and little progress has been seen in the domains of struggle: large gender gaps in pay and high adult male mortality rate. High male mortality is still a concern in the country, and