The problem of gender disparities in various areas of society has long been well known and identified in many areas, including the academic environment. Several studies have shown that in most countries, women researchers are significantly less represented at almost all levels of the academic system (UNESCO, 2016). In many countries, much is being done to reduce gender inequalities in research and create equal opportunities for men and women. Russian academia is no exception. Despite significant changes that have taken place in Russian academia, there are still signs of gender inequality in research.

Russia is ranked first globally for the share of female faculty in tertiary education, occupying approximately 60% of general academic staff (Rudakov & Prakhov, 2021). However, Russian women are presented less at the higher academic ranks and in academic management (Bagirova & Surina, 2017). Women, dominating at the first stages of their careers, become significantly less represented at the subsequent ranks (HSE, 2020). Additionally, some studies demonstrate that in the 2010s, women scholars in Russia lag behind men in all scientific fields in terms of “relative contribution to scientific output across disciplines” (Lewison & Markusova, 2011; Paul-Hus et al., 2014, p. 1551). However, these results were mainly obtained based on natural sciences and STEM, where the gender imbalance traditionally seems more evident. In recent years, significant changes have taken place in the Russian academia: 1) the development of research at universities; 2) the new funding formats (e.g., mega grants, longer research grants from the Russian Science Foundation); 3) the invitation and return of leading international researchers to leading research centers. Thus, an up-to-date large-scale assessment of the situation with gender inequality in science is needed today.

This study explores the current gender situation in Russian academia through the analysis of Russian scholars’ publication production. It asks the following research questions: 1) What gender disparities occur in the Russian academic system? 2) What research fields are more and less inclined to gender gaps? 3) What is the difference between men and women scholars in Russia in terms of publication production?

This paper describes the representation of Russian men and women authors in terms of research production. The analysis is based on 121,953 papers with at least one Russian author covered by Web of Science (WoS) and published between 2017 and 2019. The analysis of Russian men and women scholars’ relative contribution to published papers is based on the proportion of articles and reviews published by authors of each gender from Russia. To infer the gender of authorships we utilized a method that combines the result of surname gender-specific suffixes and name-based gender detection service (Genderize). The analysis of research fields that are more and less inclined to gender gaps is based on the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database with research fields inside. Each paper was assigned into one of 22 research fields to analyze each research field separately.

The results demonstrate that there are still evident signs of gender disparities. Women remain underrepresented in their general presence and performance almost in all disciplines and generally in academia. In all research fields, women’s mean number of publications is lower than analogous males’ indicators. Although some areas have relative gender parity and even more women authors, the gap between both genders remains stable for most disciplines. As a result, despite some improvements in women’s research performance, the Russian academia is the case, demonstrating that without gender policy in both Russian political and science systems, it is complicated to eliminate gender inequality.

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