Abstract: This article examines the professional trajectories of highly educated female immigrants from the former Soviet Union who created a distinctive niche of "Russian math education" in the United States. Moving beyond dominant narratives in migration literature that portray immigrant women primarily as constrained by gender norms, this study foregrounds gendered agency to explain how post-Soviet women leveraged their human capital, pedagogical traditions, and cultural values to create new professional pathways. Drawing on the concepts of gendered agency and the aspiration–capability framework, the study identifies two primary sources of agency: parental aspirations to secure high-quality mathematics education for their children, and professional ambitions grounded in a passion for teaching. The analysis reveals that traditional gender roles—particularly the breadwinner–caregiver model and the centrality of motherhood—had an ambivalent impact: while they could limit conventional career options, they also enabled women to channel their parental responsibilities and professional goals into entrepreneurial educational initiatives. By centering gendered agency, the study contributes to migration scholarship on the role of gender in shaping immigrant experiences and illuminates the complex ways in which traditional gender roles can simultaneously constrain and inspire professional trajectories.
Irina Olimpieva (Tue,) studied this question.