Marina Baskakova - Doctor of Sciences in Economics, Leading Researcher, Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: baskakovame@mail.ru

Irina Soboleva - Doctor of Sciences in Economics, Head of the Center for Employment Policy and Social and Labor Relationships, Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: irasobol@gmail.com

Address: 32 Nakhimovsky Ave, 117218 Moscow, Russian Federation.

The educational potential of prospective and current employers and gender-based differences in its accumulation and use are analyzed from the perspective of the generation of decent jobs based on the data obtained by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service  Rosstat) as part of the “Population Survey on Employment Problems” and “Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey” projects. The study reveals that Russian entrepreneurship is characterized by an expressed gender asymmetry. Professionally employed women have higher educational potential than men, yet less opportunity to play out this competitive advantage as entrepreneurs. The educational potential of Russian employers has been found to be pretty high, but their stratum is too thin yet to be a consistent  generator of decent jobs and too difficult to expand.