As with other prevalent trends in most European countries, in Russia an ever- increasing share of mothers prefer to combine household activities with work outside their household.

Therefore, sound, gender-sensitive employment policies may contribute to the cause of diminishing vulnerability of families with children and of childbirth stimulation more effectively than any system of direct material (financial) assistance.

I will discus here the issue of the work-family balance using data obtained from a sociological survey recently conducted that involved 1,200 Moscow families with children. About 60 percent of respondents were mothers of potentially vulnerable families (with many children, single-parent, with disabled children, etc.) — a factor that makes this analysis especially topical.