РУАЭСТ (RUAEST)
WOMEN AND RUSSIAN MODERNIZATION
This article analyzes Russian women and their ability to embrace Western educational and business practices following the fall of the Soviet Union. As recently as the 1980s, women managers in Russia were rare. Today, a total of 42 percent of senior management posts in Russia are held by women. Unlike women in Western nations who tend to frame their emerging role in ideological terms, Russian women enrolled in academic programs that gave them valuable skills for the market economy. The paper also shows that Russian women are adapting to these changes more rapidly than men. This study explores the considerable changes that have taken place in business education as Russia has adapted to the needs of a world economy. The Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree is now popular across Russia and is the source of the new business management concepts that explain the data. Russians are now far more likely to speak English, to work in a service-related job, to hold personal investment portfolios and to be able to work outside of Russia. These are massive changes compared to the years before 1991. New business curricula have played a role in making these changes happen.