The first characteristic of Russian women, which foreign people working in Russia pay attention to, is an improbable work capacity and endurance of Russian women. Thus, getting a job, women (on the contrary to men) frequently agree on unprofitable economic conditions, for example, considerably lower level of payment in comparison with the foreign personnel. However professional requirements and degrees of employment are the same. Therefore compared to the European tradition where the preference is given men at employment, bosses of foreign firms working in Russia more precisely employ women.
Besides professional advantages of the Russian women, the foreign men have noted also some human qualities of Russian women. Respondents from elite groups, in view of insignificance of contacts to local population (except for the employees), usually have literary impression about Russian women, which is based on images from the books of Russian classical literature. However, when foreign bosses started to transfer these synthesized images on concrete women in the real life, they were comprehended with bitter disappointment. In practice lovely, touching, sacrificial turned out to be rather vigorous, business and combative, rigidly stopping encroachments on the rights.
Among negative characteristics of Russian women many foreigners named rigidity, cruelty, a thrift features. At the same time young (16-20 years) girls and women appear more trustful and unprotected.