In connection with the changes in the structure of the work force that took place in Russia in the final ten years of the twentieth century and the increase in professional, intersectorial, and other kinds of labor mobility, the problem of the replacement and reproduction of cadres of top qualification (candidates and doctors of science) has come into new prominence. Reproducing a top qualification work force relates to "the gender aspect of the problem," in that women have traditionally been excluded from highly qualified and highly paid kinds of professional employment. In this article, the authors look at gender issues relating to the reproduction of top qualification cadres in the system of supplementary postcollegiate education. It is concluded that this inequality in gender is of a sociocultural nature, and it carries the remnants of the ideology of traditional society, with its patriarchal values and gender roles. (Contains 4 tables.)