| Summary: | Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited === This thesis contends that the government of the Russian Federation will benefit more from policies that end job discrimination against women than policies aimed at trying to get women to embrace their traditional gender role as wife and mother in hopes that it will improve fertility rates. While Russia is enduring concurrent demographic and economic crises, there are trade-offs between empowering women with equal job opportunity and high fertility rates, usually referred to as the Demographic-economic Paradox. While fertility rates are an important aspect of population growth, evidence indicates that the high mortality rate is more detrimental to Russia's population growth rates. Thus, government policies to curb needless deaths will be more beneficial for the Russian population overall than attempts to revitalize traditional gender roles to increase fertility rates, especially in a depressed economic environment. Moreover, as the sex ratio of women to men increases, changes in the social and economic structure are inevitable.
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