During the six years of Mikhail Gorbachev's attempted perestroika, the official approach to issues of concern to women has been markedly different from that relating to many other areas of social, political and economic life. At a time of radical change and questioning of the legacy of the past, policy on women has been characterized by a renewed commitment to programmes instituted during the ‘period of stagnation’. Legislative change on benefits, leave and the provision of part-time work has been designed to assist women to spend more time with their children and to promote further the ‘strengthening of the family’ begun under Brezhnev. In the area of family policy and women's roles in society, glasnost has provided a ready platform for conservative as well as radical voices. As economic reform begins to affect Soviet workers, however, government policies on the family may not necessarily prove to be the boon to women that their promoters promise.

The policy of glasnost has, of course, not only encouraged debate but has turned the spotlight on to areas of women's experience previously untouched by the Soviet media. Difficult and dangerous working conditions, prostitution and the treatment of abortion and childbirth have all come under scrutiny. Sex has ceased to be a taboo subject as censorship has been relaxed and attitudes have liberalized. Many of the issues raised are inevitably of concern to women of all ages, yet others affect young women disproportionately.