In the American media, Russian mail-order brides are often portrayed either as docile victims or as gold diggers in search of money and green cards. Rarely are they allowed to speak for themselves. Until now. In Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband six Russian women who are either in search of or have already found U.S. husbands via listings on the Internet tell their stories. The women—in their twenties and thirties—describe how they placed listings on the Web and what they think about their contacts with Western men. They discuss their expectations about marriage in the United States and their reasons for wishing to emigrate. Ericka Johnson, an American researcher of gender and technology, interviewed these women and others during the 1990s. The women’s diversity—in their backgrounds, economic situations, and educational levels—belies any homogeneous characterization of Russian mail-order brides. Each chapter presents one woman’s story and then links it to a discussion of gender roles, the mail-order bride industry, and the severe economic and social constraints of life in Russia. The transitional economy often leaves people, after a month’s work, either unpaid or paid unexpectedly with a supply of sunflower oil or toilet paper. Women over twenty-three are considered virtually unmarriageable in Russian society. Partly because Russian men often die of alcohol-related deaths, and many men are unemployed, Russia has a large population of women who are single, divorced, or widowed. Grim realities such as these motivate women to seek better lives abroad. For many of those seeking a mail-order husband, children or parents play significant roles in the search for better lives, and they play a role in Johnson’s account as well. In addition to her research in Russia, Johnson conducted interviews in the United States, and she shares the insights—about dating, marriage, and cross-cultural cultural communication—of a Russian-American married couple who met via the Internet.