SPECIAL PROJECT WITH THE HEINRICH BÖLL FOUNDATION
“Would you like to go, honey?
to the theater":
8 stories about gender
discrimination in science
Text: Elena Kiseleva
Photos: Oleg Borodin
“Imagine what it’s like for her husband to live with a doctor of sciences”
Sofia Gavrilova
geographer, cartographer, 29 years old
Graduated from the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University (specialist and postgraduate studies). Currently a doctoral student at Oxford University. Work experience - laboratory of snow avalanches and mudflows, Higher School of Urbanism (lecturer)
During my work in Russia, I came across various gender clichés (for example, “Imagine what it’s like for her husband to live with a doctor of sciences” - an academic adaptation of the more familiar “You’ve just never had a normal guy”), and with facts: the majority the heads of the department are men, the dean's office is men. My faculty and area of expertise is field, which involves very high demands on health and physical fitness. At one time, during the distribution, I did not get into the department of my dreams - I passed on points, but all other things being equal, they gave preference to a man, openly telling me about this and saying: “And thank God, you will be healthier this way, you won’t freeze anything off.” On the one hand, this is completely unacceptable, it greatly influenced my entire future career and life - I was very offended, and I acutely felt the injustice. On the other hand, a number of physical activities and climatic features can negatively affect women’s health, and a boy can physically lift more kilograms up a mountain. But still, I still had fear and the always wary expectation that I might not be accepted somewhere because I was a woman.
Other cases are everyday sexism: when you are mistaken for a hostess at conferences, and you are a speaker; the eternal “baby”; even with degrees and publications, the accounting “run and take the papers for signature” sticks. In the UK, try making one of these comments. This can not only ruin your career, but also lead to litigation. Although if you ask the English academics themselves, I guarantee that they will also say that there is discrimination and it is much more difficult for women to get high positions.
By the way, during expeditions and projects in hard-to-reach places there is much less such discrimination. You will not be forced to cook porridge every day just because you are a woman, but no one is obliged to help you carry your backpack, although they will give you a little less social load when distributing it. I am eternally grateful to my colleagues who trusted me with difficult tasks, woke me up in the morning with the offer to “quickly run to the top to measure a couple of indicators” and did not put the fact that I was a woman at the forefront. Although there were exceptions. Just this summer, the head of my expedition did not wake me up for one of the trips, which included a boat trip, arguing that “a woman on a ship is a bad omen.” Of course, I don't have anything to do with him anymore.
A few months above the Arctic Circle perfectly equalizes everyone. It seems to me that long expeditions shaped me in many ways. I’m used to relying only on myself, I always take as much things as I can carry, and I don’t expect discounts or help (including physical help) because I’m a woman. If I need to drill a hole, I take a drill and instructions, rather than looking for a man with a drill.
It seems to me that in Russia, discrimination in science and education begins in the family and preschool education. Gender stereotypes migrate from there to the academy - like an ivory castle for the smartest. Who are our girls usually? Girls are usually beautiful. In pink dresses, sparkles - expectant mothers, princesses, four years old with pierced ears and lipstick, with Barbies and dinnerware sets. It is very difficult to outweigh this - there must be videos (like that ill-fated Nike video, only in the scientific field), and scholarships, and assistance programs, and, of course, fascinating and accessible popular science literature. It is necessary to raise the image of science - to pay not normal, but big money to scientific personnel, so that science is a desirable field, and not the lot of eccentrics and losers, as is now the case in the minds of a large number of people, to explain and popularize the mechanisms and schemes adopted in the academy (me even in the closest circle of relatives they ask: “Well, when will you finish studying, eternal student, and find a normal job?”), provide conditions, increase the mobility of scientific personnel, give more research freedom. Of course, it’s fun to be a freak, but in your 15th year, to be honest, you get tired.
“In Russia there is too much social pressure on women”
Victoria Korzhova
neuroscientist and scientific career consultant for undergraduate and graduate students, 28 years old
She completed her master's degree at St. Petersburg State University, is studying graduate school at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and is working on her research project at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. As a consultant on scientific careers, he conducts online training programs and provides personal consultations for Russian-speaking undergraduate and graduate students.
I have research experience in Russia, Switzerland, USA, Israel and Germany. Russia is the most patriarchal among these countries. We still believe that by the age of 25, a woman should already get married and give birth to a child, or preferably two. This is neither good nor bad, but the family clearly limits a woman’s career opportunities - she becomes geographically tied to her husband’s work, her children’s kindergarten and school, and cannot spend extra hours at work, since her family requires attention. Therefore, Russian women and girls are much less likely to build an international career than men. And internationality is the norm and a mandatory requirement of modern science.
In Europe and the USA, 22–30 years is the time when women and men actively study, develop their professional skills, gain work experience abroad, undergo internships, and launch their own projects (this is a risk that is also poorly compatible with family). As a result, by the age of 30–35, they become experienced professionals with a fairly wide choice of career opportunities. Women in Russia by this age, as a rule, have children, but without the career capital that will allow them to succeed in the international scientific environment. I want to make a reservation that I see many advantages in starting a family and having children at 20–25 years old. And I know examples where women managed to combine this with building a successful scientific career. But it seems to me important that the decision about what to give priority to - family or career - at any given moment is up to the woman. In Russia, there is too much social pressure on women. There is no such thing in Germany. For example, if in Russia it is considered normal to ask about her marital status and children when meeting a woman for the first time, in Germany this question is not asked in the first conversation, especially if the woman is under 30. In general, in Germany they respect people’s private lives much more and usually do not they ask questions about it until the person himself begins to talk.
I personally have not had to deal with my gender in any way interfering with my goals or affecting professional interactions. But it should be noted that I am not a timid person and know how to defend my point of view. I'm not easily embarrassed. I grew up in the provinces and, although I was not able to enter Moscow State University immediately after school, I was not content with the poor level of biology teaching in my hometown, but entered St. Petersburg State University a year later. During my six years at the university, I went to three foreign internships and several international conferences, although no one pushed me anywhere and I had no connections. It was just interesting, I wanted to learn new things and become a professional. I entered three good research centers for graduate school and ended up choosing the best university in Germany. The main thing is that I was not afraid to try and did not give up any ideas when it didn’t work out the first time. For example, during foreign internships, my home university did not support me at all, creating more and more bureaucratic obstacles. As a result, it got ridiculous: in order to go on a three-month internship in the USA, I took an academic course, and then left it early before the session. It turned out that it was impossible to formalize my absence from the university during the semester in any other way.
“You should go, dear, to the theater. Why do you need this science?
Vitalina Kirgizova
geneticist-immunologist, 22 years old
She graduated from the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, received education in bioinformatics, immunology, economics and management of biotechnology at the University of Cambridge, Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Bioinformatics Institute, Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics of Moscow State University. Employee of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, popularizes science, writes a blog vitalinabiology.com and oversees the educational program on biotechnologies Biotech Weekend at Digital October
I remember when I, a winner of the All-Russian Olympiad, took my documents to the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, one of the elderly employees of the admissions committee, pasting a photograph to my personal file, sighed: “You should go, dear, to the theater. Why do you need this science? Nevertheless, approximately twice as many girls as boys enroll in the biology department of Moscow State University. Plus, thanks to their perseverance and diligence, more girls survive to graduation. Sometimes there is not a single young person among 10 students in departments. Therefore, girls in the field department on expeditions are forced to chop wood, make fires, and carry boats on their shoulders... Boys, especially intelligent ones, are very much valued at the biology department.
Perhaps gender discrimination is associated with the biological and psychophysiological predestination of women. Men, by nature, take risks more easily and engage in adventurous projects. Women are often less willing to put everything on the line. But behind many Nobel laureates - project managers who form the goal of the project - were women researchers who carefully carried out a huge layer of delicate experimental work that required colossal concentration. Having successfully studied for the first year and survived a two-month biological internship, I was invited to apply for my first official job. Among the first questions from the professor, a member of the European Academy of Sciences, was this: how soon do I plan to get married and have children? I assessed the question quite adequately - women traditionally take care of housekeeping and raising children. Laboratory managers take into account that they may be investing unique knowledge, resources and their own efforts in an employee who will leave science forever at the time of starting a family.
In general, every time at interviews and interviews I had to prove that yes, I am interested in fundamental research and do not plan to give up my scientific career. When I entered my first department, the head during the interview asked whether I really planned to continue doing science and not achieve success in the modeling industry. In any case, I put up with everything and try not to focus on discrimination. For example, I follow the L'Oréal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science. It is prestigious, and a small number of laureates receive it every year. Last year, one of my teachers at Moscow State University won it. Of course, one interdisciplinary prize is nothing in the context the entire spectrum of sciences. In Russia there is a lack of awards and grants for women researchers, and I cannot name a single one. Apparently, there are so many material gaps in the financing of Russian research that there is no time for foreign trends in supporting women in science.
“In America, the guys took turns driving me home, since I lived quite far from campus.”
Anastasia Naumova
chemist, 22 years old
Graduated from the Higher Chemical Committee of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Chemical Technical University. Works at Skoltech and the Laboratory of Computer Design of Materials at MIPT
It seems to me that the concept of discrimination against women in science and education appeared not because of discrimination as such (it no longer exists fifty years ago), but because women, due to the evolutionary characteristics of their psyche, are less likely to devote their lives to scientific activities than men. In science, you can never be 100% sure of the success of the result, that is, you have to take risks, which is evolutionarily more typical for men than for women. Thus, due to the smaller number of women scientists, this false idea of discrimination against women in science arose.
During my scientific career, I managed to work in several scientific groups in different countries of the world (Russia, America, China, Switzerland). In my opinion, if gender discrimination exists, it is not directed against women. In my experience, girls in science are always in the minority, so they are treated with special care (I didn’t feel this explicitly only in America - there is equality there). In all the laboratories in which I worked, for a long time I was the first and only lady in the team, so the men tried to help me like gentlemen. Although in America, the guys in the car took turns driving me home, since I lived quite far from campus.
In the States, the situation is somewhat different from Russia in that they strive for complete equality in everything, from the amount of workload per woman/man to the number of employees of both sexes. Since women are not very willing to go into science, they have to work a lot and hard, but moving up the career ladder is much easier than for men, since there is more competition in their ranks. In my opinion, this American system is incorrect: in science, it is not gender that should determine professional worth, but the list of significant publications. A similar situation is observed, for example, for all ethnic minorities. That is, when choosing between two candidates for a professorship, they are more likely to choose a woman or a person with Indian roots than anyone else.
In Russia, China, Switzerland and many other countries, the situation is different: a person’s success in science is determined by his competence, regardless of nationality and gender, which, in my opinion, is more correct. It happened, of course, even during my studies at the university that professors of the old school treated girls in a special way, initially believing that in principle they could not be smart. But this point of view is becoming increasingly rare.
“In the scientific world, sometimes what is lacking is gender differences, not total equality”
Victoria Savelyeva
chemist, 25 years old
Graduated from the master's program at the Russian Chemical Technical University. D. I. Mendeleev. PhD student at the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) in Strasbourg (Alsace, France)
As strange as it may sound, the scientific world sometimes lacks gender differences rather than total equality. For example, it is impossible to require the same work experience by age 35 for men and women. How can you work two or three positions in different countries around the world and at the same time give birth and raise a child, when you constantly move and are only home at night? What kind of husband can follow you around the world, also constantly changing jobs?
Last year I was a participant in the International Conference in Bordeaux (France), one of the sections of which was dedicated to women working at cyclic accelerators (synchrotrons). I was very impressed by the speech of one associate professor, a mother of two children, who shared her not the most pleasant experience. Time at the synchrotron is extremely valuable, so her team was very lucky when the project received its coveted opportunity. At the time of the next experiment at the accelerator, this girl assistant professor was pregnant. And do you know what the doctor working at the synchrotron told her? “Are you aware that this is a risk (you are exposed to radiation)? Decide for yourself..." Decide for yourself?! I'm sure this is not the first case of pregnant workers. And where is the help, the protection? Why not suggest transferring measurements, swapping with someone? Fearing that there would be no other opportunity, the girl went to the measurements and, thank God, then gave birth to a healthy child. After some time - the second one. And now she is given new time to work at the synchrotron - wonderful! But who should leave two children? The youngest still needs to be breastfed (maternity leave in France is very short). And she goes on research, taking two kids in her arms. For a minute, these are far from resort conditions, but round-the-clock work, sleeping three to four hours in total (when necessary), stressful conditions, noise from thousands of pumps. Maybe this is not exactly a story about discrimination, but about the desire of a woman, a mother of two children, to do what she loves, no matter what.
A good friend of mine met her future husband during her graduate studies in Belgium - they are both Iranian. The candidacy has been secured, the husband’s contract in Belgium has been completed, what next? He goes to Iran, but she doesn’t, she simply won’t be able to work in science there, no one will let her in, and she finds a postdoc in Turkey. And how many families are there where a woman wants to realize herself, but does not want to ruin the family? Unfortunately, you often have to be content with little.
If we talk about the attitude towards the family, towards raising children, it seems to me that the policy of France is much more loyal than in Russia. It allows a woman (and a man too) to combine both roles - a full-fledged employee and a mother/father. For example, in the lower grades children do not study on Wednesdays, and working mothers can easily spend these days with their child until he grows up. This is stated in their contract. Or, for example, school holidays are a sacred time that can be spent with children. Who in Russia can afford to take vacations for all school holidays, at the same time as their colleagues? Almost everything in France. An alternative is a la kindergartens at companies or scientific institutes.
It seems to me that first of all it is necessary to communicate and discuss these topics globally. We have no idea about the norms and situations in other countries. And discuss not only with your narrow circle of women, but also involve more and more men in the discussion.
“Currently there are 16 men under my leadership”
Sofia Gromova
chemist
Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University. Lomonosov, candidate of chemical sciences. Technical Director of the Industrial Department at 3M Russia
The problem of sexism in science is not imaginary. If you look at the history of the Nobel Prize, out of 870 laureates, only 48 are women, while less than half of them received the prize in the field of natural and exact sciences, while the bulk received the prize in literature and the peace prize. In a scientific team in which a man and a woman work, the latter is often perceived as support staff. The same thing happens when we talk about laboratory workers: as a rule, the first image that comes to mind is a girl laboratory assistant. It is believed that even when delivering a lecture course, the same speech by a male and female lecturer is perceived differently by students.
As you know, any rule has exceptions. And I am a pleasant exception, since I have never had to deal with gender bias in my work at the university and in the company. The university has always valued scientific achievements above all: intellectual property, new and interesting developments, the ability to communicate with students and correctly convey information. Now there are 16 men under my leadership; I have never carried out gender separation myself and have not observed it at 3M. The R&D and technical support department values professionalism, innovation, creativity and emotional intelligence. And these concepts have no gender.
I know many female professors who make significant contributions to science. Just like women who are successful in business. It is known that women's leadership style is often more flexible than men's. There are now programs to support women scientists with families, which provide grants to women so that they can combine a career in science and supporting their family. These include, for example, the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation.
Once I had to come to a conference with a child. My daughter was one and a half years old at the time; I was breastfeeding her, but I really wanted to go to the reports at that conference. The event took place in the Moscow region - I wandered back and forth for a couple of days, and on the third I came with my daughter. Half of the conference participants were touched, but the other looked in bewilderment. It happened that people came up with the words: “You don’t know how to organize your time! I came here to show off - I have to stay with the children on maternity leave! You won’t be able to make it everywhere anyway.” Fortunately, these were only a few.
By the way, I defended my dissertation when my daughter was only three months old, and my eldest child entered first grade. It was hard, but that’s how it turned out. And no one felt sorry for me then. My opponent and I sat and talked for hours, then I said that I was feeding and left. For me to just get away with something just because I’m a young mother - that didn’t happen. I don't think there's anything particularly bad about this. The main thing is not that women in science should be pitied. The main thing is to be respected. Now the Federal Agency of Scientific Organizations is refusing kindergartens at the Russian Academy of Sciences - this is a problem. This creates insurmountable difficulties for graduate students and young scientists without housing in Moscow in order to find a home for their children.
Theorems and theories need to be proven, not that women can do it too. From practice, a man can work in a laboratory from morning to evening, and everyone accepts this. But if a married lady with children does this, they already perceive it ambiguously and begin to look for problems in her life. Women in science need moral support, and not condemnation in the style of “Get out of maternity leave soon, otherwise you won’t be able to think anymore.” And also a simple understanding that a concentrated mother who planned an experiment is in no way inferior to a leisurely husband of science who can sit for a long time and force himself to do something all day long.
“Women get stuck in administrative positions and in teaching and learning departments”
The first time I realized the fact of quite blatant discrimination was when the moment came to choose a graduate school. Graduate school is often used as a means of getting out of the military by young people who may have no academic aspirations at all. I know of a department that, despite its scientifically brilliant composition, accepted only young men for graduate studies. Knowing about this feature, my female colleagues immediately left for other cities and countries to continue their careers, without even submitting documents here.
Secondly, women researchers and graduate students are often assigned administrative and secretarial functions by default. So far, I know of only one research center in which the administrative work is performed by a man. I regularly encountered requests to organize coffee breaks, meet guests at a conference - in a word, to show concern. This is how women get stuck in administrative positions and in teaching and learning departments.
Compared to business or the career of an official, doing science in Russia is not so prestigious. It is no secret that the less elite a profession is, the greater the proportion of women in it, who traditionally occupy lower-paid and lower-status positions in the labor market. Therefore, the number of female teachers in higher education in Russia is quite impressive. At first glance, this may look like there is no problem, but if we adjust for the level of wages and the status of administrative positions, we again see an imbalance.
The Russian academy suffers from so many ills that discrimination is perhaps not the worst of them. They discriminate not only based on gender, but also on the presence or absence of connections, “nonresident” status, belonging to another academic school, and a number of other parameters. But if someday it comes down to institutional mechanisms for solving the problem, methods like CV blind review seem to me to be quite effective, when the personnel commission does not see the gender (as well as ethnicity) of the applicant. Or regular monitoring by independent university ethics commissions using anonymous corporate surveys and a prescribed procedure for resolving conflicts and ambiguous situations. In the universities where I have studied, interned, or simply hung out, I have found that, regardless of the political or ideological views of the leadership, there is always a Diversity Committee or its equivalent that ensures that relative balance is maintained students and university staff: race, gender or any other. During my studies in Italy, the question of the lack of female teachers at the faculty repeatedly came up. For example, on the eve of defending her dissertation, my colleague insisted that at least half of her dissertation committee (analogous to a dissertation council in Russia) be women.
Another difficulty that women in science face, both in Russia and abroad, is the lack of role models for successful female scientists. As one American professor once said, “for students, you are either a mommy or a bitch.” Both graduate and postgraduate students, in the course of professional socialization, have to navigate male role models in their academic careers. As you know, there are slightly more women in the so-called humanities, which, as we know, some of our colleagues do not consider to be science. However, there is less money there.
Gender studies (English - gender studies) is an interdisciplinary research practice that uses the cognitive capabilities of the theory of social sex (gender) to analyze social phenomena and their changes N.L. Pushkareva. Why is it needed, this “gender”? // Social history 1998/1999. M., 1999. - P. 155..
Gender studies is a branch of knowledge with the help of which it is studied how a particular society defines, shapes, consolidates and distributes in the public consciousness and in the consciousness of an individual the social roles of women and men, as well as what consequences this distribution has for them Trofimova E. AND. On the issue of gender terminology. // http://www.gender-cent.ryazan.ru/content.htm..
Gender studies, which emerged in the West as an interdisciplinary branch of knowledge in the late 60s and early 70s, and in Russia in the late 80s, play a significant role in various areas of the humanities.
The specificity of gender research is determined by the object, subject, goals and objectives of the study, as well as the methodology and methodology for studying gender manifestations.
Let's consider the object, subject, goals and objectives of gender research.
The object of gender research is phenomena, occurrences, and processes of social reality, which are considered in historical retrospect, in the present tense and in the projected future.
The subject of gender research is the gender aspects of these phenomena, occurrences, and processes of social reality. The study of gender aspects always implies the study of discriminatory manifestations based on gender. Accordingly, the objectives of the study, one way or another, are centered around the study of overt and latent discrimination based on gender.
The priority tasks of gender research include studying the mechanism of constructing gender in such important spheres of human life as upbringing, education, family, work, politics, economics, and culture.
Depending on the subject, goals and objectives of the study, several blocks can be distinguished in which the specifics of gender studies are revealed.
The first block is aimed at studying gender aspects in different fields of activity. These include, for example, the following areas of gender research: gender aspects of labor and employment; gender aspect of unemployment dynamics, etc.
The second block focuses on gender expertise. Of particular interest is, for example, the gender examination of textbooks for higher educational institutions, the results of which were published in scientific periodicals and in the form of the collection “Gender examination of textbooks for higher education.” Gender examination of textbooks for higher education / Ed. O.A. Voronina. - M.: ROO MCGI - Soltex LLC, 2005. - P. 19..
The third block is focused on empirically identifying the specifics of gender relations unfolding in different aspects of life. This block examines social, labor, legal, psychological, cultural, linguistic, historical and many other aspects of gender relations.
The fourth block is aimed at men's studies. The specificity of gender studies is that they include not only discriminatory aspects against women, but also a subject area of knowledge that covers everything that concerns men, including the biology of the male body, men's health, etc. The purpose of "men's studies" is to study men's life experiences as "socio-historical-cultural constructs", to critically discuss issues relating to men and masculinities, and to disseminate knowledge about men's lives, to rethink the male gender role, and to understand its limitations , the need to destroy gender-role stereotypes by Ilyinykh S.A. Specifics of gender studies: important details: Monograph / S.A. Ilyinykh. Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management (NINH). - Novosibirsk: NGUEU, 2009. - 234 p..
Within the framework of this course work, the specifics of gender research in social psychology are considered, i.e. psychological aspects of gender relations. Then the subject of gender research in social psychology is gender relations, differences and similarities between the sexes.
The first works in the field of gender studies were carried out in line with the gender-role approach. The main theory on which modern gender studies are based is the theory of the social construction of gender.
In the system of socio-psychological knowledge, the most significant (compared to other psychological disciplines) scientific prerequisites for studying the psychological component of gender relations have been created.
This is explained as follows:
Firstly, in social psychology, the category of “relationships”, which is basic in the system of gender knowledge, has long been included in the subject field of science and is being actively developed.
Secondly, in such traditional sections of social psychology as “psychology of large groups”, “psychology of intergroup relations”, “psychology of communication and interpersonal relationships” a certain amount of empirical knowledge and conceptualizations has been accumulated, which can be productively used to analyze problems of gender relations.
Thirdly, social psychology implements a holistic, integrated approach to the study of three main elements of socio-psychological reality - the inner world of the individual, interpersonal interaction in a specific situation, the social structure of society, which are key to gender research and gender relations.
Thus, the subject field of social psychology turns out to be the basis on which gender issues can develop more intensively compared to other psychological branches of knowledge. Social psychology is that convenient “door” through which gender issues can quite easily enter the system of psychological science I.S. Kletsina. From the psychology of gender to gender studies // Questions of psychology. - 2003. - No. 1..
The central category of gender studies is the multidimensional, developing, differently interpreted concept of “gender” by numerous researchers. This term belongs to the English language and Western civilization; in Russian it is adapted from English and does not have an adequate translation. We can say that “gender” is an integral part of the modern process of globalization, understood as the involvement of the whole world in single universal processes. It was Western civilization that historically and theoretically approached a stage of its development when the need for gender changes and gender analysis became a necessity for N.A. Blokhin. The concept of gender: formation, basic concepts and ideas // http://www.gender-cent.ryazan.ru/content.htm..
The term "gender" originally belonged only to linguistics. In W. Muller’s English-Russian dictionary, “gender” has two meanings: the first to denote grammatical gender, the second to denote gender in its humorous sense. The term “gender” in its new, non-grammatical sense was first used by psychologist Robert Stoller in 1968. He did this to distinguish between “masculinity” (masculinity) and “femininity” (femininity) as sociocultural characteristics of “masculine” and “feminine”. “Male” and “female” acted as the biological basis for the natural distinction between men and women.
There is a lot of disagreement regarding the issue of distinguishing between the concepts of “sex” and “gender”. A number of scientists use these terms as synonyms, while other researchers strive to find a fine line between the concepts under study.
In particular, S. Kessler and W. McKenna, believing that sex is only one of the varieties of gender as a system of social relations, propose leaving behind the concept “sex” only the sphere of meanings directly related to reproductive activity Vorontsov D.V. What is gender // Gender psychology / ed. I. S. Kletsina. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2009. - pp. 9-20..
In contrast to the opinion of the above-mentioned researchers who seek to introduce an element of sociality into the category of biological sex, Joan Scott proposes to resolve the problem of the relationship between the terms “sex” and “gender”, denying the exclusive sociality of gender and including in it the natural, biological specificity of N. G. Malysheva. Gender stereotypes in youth media communications: Dis. ...cand. psychol. Sci. - M.: 2008. - 178 p..
Some researchers believe that there are not only biological sex, but also other levels of sex:
Cerebral (determines “male” or “female” thinking styles);
Morphological gender (male or female genital organs);
Psychological gender (“male” or “female” psychological characteristics).
However, it is still not worthwhile to oppose the levels of gender to each other: they are closely interconnected Ilyin E.P. Differential psychophysiology of men and women. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2006. - P.7-11..
Ageev V.S. in the article “The influence of cultural factors on the perception and assessment of a person by a person” explains that gender relates specifically to the “spiritual” side of a person, in contrast to gender. Gender is a social superstructure that arises as a result of the socialization of a person, no matter what gender he is: male or female Ageev V.S. The influence of cultural factors on the perception and assessment of a person by a person. // Questions of psychology. - 1985. No. 3. - P. 135-140..
There are a number of general points characteristic of the disclosure of the concept of “gender”.
Secondly, the social essence of gender is determined by different norms for male and female action and interaction, norms prescribed and recreated by society. However, it is hardly possible now to give an accurate and specific definition of this phenomenon, which has become the subject of interdisciplinary research in the absence of a correlative general unified and differentiated conceptual apparatus.
Conclusions:
The considered object, subject, goals and objectives of gender research allow us to assert the presence of specific features of gender research in social psychology:
1. Gender studies is a new field of knowledge and education. Gender studies is the study of socio-cultural differentiation and stratification based on gender as reproduced in society.
2. Currently, gender studies are presented in two aspects: the first aspect involves the implementation of the gender approach as a scientific theory and research practice, the second - as an educational practice, including the development and teaching of gender-oriented academic disciplines Kon I.S. Sexual differences and differentiation of social roles: the relationship between the biological and the social in humans. - M.: Medicine, 1975. - P.326..
3. Gender studies study almost all issues of interaction between men and women, both at the level of society, in the family and in personal life. The key issue in gender studies is the distinction between the concepts of “sex” and “gender”.
5. The term “gender” cannot be identified with the concept of “sex”. Sex refers to the biological characteristics that divide people into categories of “men” and “women,” while gender refers to the social and socio-psychological attributes that divide people into these same categories (“men” and “women”).
(English gender studies) interdisciplinary research practice that uses the cognitive capabilities of the theory of social sex (gender) to analyze social phenomena and their changes.
In 1958, psychoanalyst Robert Stoller, working at the University of California (Los Angeles, USA), introduced the term “gender” (social manifestations of gender or “social sex”) into science. In 1963, he spoke at a congress of psychoanalysts in Stockholm, making a presentation on the concept of sociosexual (or, as he called it, gender) self-awareness. His concept was based on the separation of “biological” and “cultural”: the study of gender (English sex), considered R. Stoler, is the subject area of biology and physiology, and gender analysis (English gender) can be considered as a subject area of research by psychologists and sociologists, analysis of cultural and historical phenomena. R. Stoller's proposal to separate the biological and cultural components in the study of issues related to gender gave impetus to the formation of a special direction in modern humanitarian knowledge - gender studies.
Thanks to their emergence and development, gender in social theory is considered as an instrument of social determination and stratification (on a par with class, ethnicity, religion, culture), and current social problems power, violence, self-awareness, freedom appear as problems associated with belonging to a certain semi. Thanks to gender studies, the problems of human essence, meaning and purpose received a gender dimension, being presented as related to the socio-sexual (gender) roles of each individual and the hierarchy and discrimination based on gender existing in any society.
Pushkareva N.L. Why is it needed, this« gender"? // Social history 1998/1999. M., 1999. P. 155177
Yarskaya-Smirnova E.R. Women's and Gender Studies Abroad// Denisova A.A. (ed.) Dictionary of gender terms. M., 2002. P.100103
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