The paper describes the basic tendencies of gender policy in employment in Russia based on the analysis of statistical sources of the Soviet period, the period of reorganization and results of modern researches. A historical perspective of use of gender potential in Russia, gender approaches to human resource management during the reform period and gender stereotypes in human resource management practices of the Russian companies are analyzed. The paper includes the results of analyzing the fairness of procedures of selection, hiring, remuneration, evaluation, training and development, promotion and firing staff in 60 Russian companies from 9 fields.