A gender role is a type of social role that defines acceptable and desirable behavior for men and women.
In the North Caucasus, almost all women are economically active
Everything related to development tends to change, so there is nothing permanent in the world, including expectations from the behavior of men and women. But we’ll look into how gender roles are fixed and what determines them in our article.
Gender roles - what are they?
Let's consider the concept of gender role in order to clearly understand the meaning of this phenomenon. Gender roles represent the traditional behavioral responses expected in society from males and females. They can be expected, attributed, imposed, demanded by society, but any person has the right to decide for himself whether he needs stereotypical behavior.
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They are instilled by society by raising from childhood a certain manner of behavior inherent in one or another gender. Let's find out what the gender role of a representative of one sex or another means using specific examples.
History of the word "gender"
The English word “gender” has Latin roots. It comes from “genus”, that is, “ genus ” translated into Russian. It is noteworthy that it was primarily used in linguistics rather than in sociology.
The term was used to designate the grammatical category “gender”. Partially, this topic began to be covered in the 30s, but is vigorously discussed in various areas to this day:
- 1935 Margaret Mead first expressed her ideas about the distinction between biological and social sex .
- 1955 The first mention of the word “gender” is in the works of the American sexologist John Money, who uses it to denote the terminological distinction between biological sex and social role.
- 1968. The next stage in development was the works of Stoller, who, one might say, introduced this term into mass use.
Examples of gender roles
Examples of individual gender roles have changed over time and as humanity has changed. Moreover, they continue to change. Thus, a person’s gender roles can be imposed and prevent him from manifesting himself as nature created him. These behavioral stereotypes lead to misunderstanding between the sexes, conflicts, and therefore make people unhappy. Let's now look at some examples of gender roles. Since ancient times, a man has been a hunter, a leader, a warrior with such character traits as self-confidence, risk-taking, aggression, and quick reaction. The woman was always distinguished by her gentleness, compassion, care and was only concerned with maintaining the home and raising the future generation. Naturally, time leaves its mark on behavioral stereotypes, so it is rare to find truly feminine or masculine behavior in its pure form.
Current use of the term
At the moment, the term "gender" is often used instead of the term "sex". There is no clear delineation of situations in which one or another concept should be used. The use of one term instead of another depends on the views of the particular author.
Authors who are in no way related to feminist theorists and are not followers of their ideas most often use “gender” as a synonym for the term “sex.” If the author of a scientific article simply does not see any special differences in them, he simply will not distinguish between them and separate them .
At the same time, feminists and followers of their movement have a clear position. The term “sex” is used by them quite rarely, and then only to condemn it. Most often they use “gender” or “gender characteristic”, since they proclaim the freedom of self-determination of a person, regardless of his biological identification.
Female gender role
Recently, representatives of the fair half of humanity are increasingly claiming equal rights and almost duplicating the male line of behavior, earning money, holding leadership positions and serving in the military.
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What are the features of the female gender role?
The female gender role in the previous understanding implies the keeper of the hearth, mother and wife. As modernity dictates its own laws, the gender role of women is changing and expanding.
The modern gender role of women has expanded. Now a lady is often not only the keeper of the hearth, but also a worker
To do this, you will have to understand what the features of the female gender role are. It lies in the fact that a woman strives to be successful, active, hardy under the prevailing rules in society that equalize both sexes. Thus, a lady must have time to manage the house, give birth to children, build a career, and also look amazing.
Gender differences and children
It is believed that, depending on the gender of the child, adults perceive him differently. In other words, the same manifestations of a child’s behavior will be perceived differently by adults, depending on whether the person in front of them is a boy or a girl. And accordingly, certain behavior and reactions are expected from the child depending on his gender. Because of this, the child is indoctrinated into what he should be and false, stereotypical thinking is imposed. That is, a gender role is stereotypical thinking instilled in a child during upbringing and socialization.
Male gender role
Men's actions are characterized by the presence of fortitude, will, and courage at all times, but this does not mean that changes did not also affect men.
Traditional education of a boy as a bearer of the male gender role (masculinity)
The essence of the male gender role
In the modern world, not only strength and courage are expected from representatives of the stronger sex. Men are required to gain status and respect, mental and emotional stability, physical stamina and avoidance of feminine activities. If a man does not achieve success in one aspect, he seeks to compensate for this by being more active in another.
A lot of other qualities are gradually being added to this list, such as intelligence, caring, restraint, the ability to communicate, and empathy.
At the same time, such signs of male behavior as clarity of thinking, stability and transmission of the gene to the future generation remain unshakable.
Interpretation of the term in different areas
In fact, the term “gender” began to appear in Western science only in the 1970s, and in Russian science only in the 1990s. In most dictionaries it is equated with the concept of “social sex” , but in modern feminist and gender studies this understanding is already considered outdated.
Today there are many interpretations of this term, the most common of which we will consider below:
- Classic interpretation . According to it, as we said earlier, the concept is based on biological and evolutionary ideas about human sexuality.
- Modernist . Strictly separates the concepts of “sex” and “gender”. The second is the so-called subjective image, the content of which is determined by sociocultural factors that influence how a person will develop personally.
- Postmodern . Sex and gender are two fundamentally different approaches to the social construction of sexuality in interpersonal communication.
If the classical interpretation at one time implied that gender was one of the varieties of the broader term “sex,” now scientists are of the opposite opinion.
It is believed that this could be any cluster of people whose criteria do not depend on biological differences.
In this case, sex can be a special case of gender, in which different criteria can be provided:
- biological sex differences (male - female - hermaphrodite);
- psycho-sexual orientation (homosexual - heterosexual - bisexual);
- cultural gender orientation (metrosexual - retrosexual - asexual).
What is the difference between the gender roles of men and women?
With the development of society, representatives of the fair half of humanity no longer want to put up with the fate of a housewife, which forces them to reconsider social stereotypes about female behavior. This is explained by the fact that society lives according to male laws, where there is a winner and a loser, and there is no sympathy and compassion.
Following this, there is often a change in roles, when the lady is the breadwinner, and her husband manages the housework. There have been quite a lot of such couples lately, and the woman herself is not satisfied with the situation, as well as the man, because both of them lack the actions inherent in nature.
It should only be noted that the husband will cope with any housework no worse than his beloved, but in one thing he will not be able to replace her, because only a woman is destined to bear and give birth to a child. As we see, the boundaries between the generally accepted behavior of representatives of both sexes are blurring, bringing with them a lot of consequences.
Equalization of representatives of different sexes leads to the fact that the family does not have time to have a child, because there are still so many things that can be interfered with. Girls are getting married later and later, since they first need to make a career, which also aggravates the demographic situation and devalues the institution of the family.
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COLTA.RU and the Heinrich Böll Foundation are pleased to present our new joint project - we hope that it will become the beginning of a large and meaningful conversation about subjects that Russian society prefers not to notice or misunderstand.
How to recognize sexism and not fall into it yourself? How to find your own “-ism” and learn to navigate modern gender diversity? What is this “gender” anyway? About this and much more - a short video course “Gender for Dummies”, where the best Russian experts, researchers and practitioners, sociologists and demographers, specialists in the fields of gender equality, the rights and responsibilities of men and women, understand our internal contradictions.
Our first expert is Elena Zdravomyslova, sociologist, professor at the European University in St. Petersburg, co-director of the gender studies program.
What is gender? Patriarchy How are gender roles formed? Conservative turn Conservative turn (continued)
What is gender?
K list
Gender is a foreign word, it has Latin roots. And it came to the Russian language from the English language. In English it sounds like "jende". This word is introduced into science, and the first person to do this is the psychiatrist, psychologist and psychoanalyst Stoller. In 1968 he wrote a book called “Gender and sex”. He proposes to accurately separate the biological characteristics of a person, his sexual characteristics (what in English would be called sex) and gender - that which is socially organized and socially constructed. He does this in '68. In fact, researchers used this term even earlier, but it was Stoller who stuck with this idea; he is the discoverer of this term. This term is actively beginning to be used by feminist researchers, researchers of women's experience, and in gender studies.
Research began to be called gender research, from the word “jende”. Because their focus is really on studying socially constructed relationships, groups defined by gender. That's what gender is. The term “gender” first appeared in Russia at the very end of the 80s. Gender in English is grammatical gender. The Russian language also has a grammatical category of gender. And why not then use the category of gender to explain the social organization of relations between the sexes? It was very important to designate this range of research interests through a term that is not associated with other obscure and misleading phenomena and discursive formations. Therefore - “gender”.
Researchers and simply people sensitive to this issue began to discuss issues of gender discrimination. And then the category “gender” turned out to be very capacious, important and appropriate. Because this discrimination, of course, is associated with social and political processes. And we must name the people who especially took such a significant step in this direction. This is the Moscow Center for Gender Research, created in 1989. It was created at the Academy of Sciences, at the Institute of Population, at the Institute of Demography. And the human core consisted of several researchers who had previously been involved in feminism and gender studies. But this was their personal interest, as it were, it was not institutionalized in any way. These are Anastasia Posadskaya, Natalya Zakharova, Natalya Mikhailovna Rimashevskaya, who was at the head of this. These researchers raised the question of the real structural barriers to gender equality.
And here special political opportunities arose for gender studies to be a fairly autonomous field of this knowledge. What's the matter? The fact is that Russia in the late 80s and early 90s demonstrated political will and integration into international academic processes. After the UN adopted a declaration in Beijing in 1985, signed by Russia, on the fight against all forms of discrimination against women, it was necessary to take a number of steps in accordance with the signed declaration. Because this declaration presupposed actions at the political level. One of these steps is a green light for researchers into gender discrimination and inequality.
Patriarchy
K list
Patriarchy is a social system, a social order in which women are the object of oppression, exploitation and find themselves in a subordinate position. A researcher like Sylvia Volby - I'm talking about her because I share this point of view - divides patriarchy into public and private. Here is private patriarchy, it mainly realizes itself as a system of subordination of women in the sphere of family life, in the sphere of private life. And the bearer of will, the subject of this subordination is an individual specific man. Father, husband. And you can always say: who is the oppressor of the spouse? Her husband. Patriarchy becomes personalized.
But in public patriarchy, no. In public patriarchy, it is very difficult to name this individual bearer of oppression, exploitation and domination. This is the structure itself, this is the social structure itself. In fact, not only women, but also men are oppressed by patriarchy. The very fact that there is a rigid idea about their roles. And this public patriarchy, that is, patriarchy in the public sphere: in the sphere of employment, in the sphere of politics, in cultural representation - that is, in those pictures that ideas about masculinity and femininity tell us - this patriarchy operates differently. It does not exclude women entirely. He includes them - please take your positions at work, in politics - but includes them under certain conditions. Segregating. We will make you deputy prime minister, but you will be responsible for health issues.
Patriarchy can, of course, be defined as a mechanism for the oppression of women. But if we shift our lens, we see that this is also a mechanism of oppression of men. Because it crushes and divides. Prescribes and segregates. If a man does not fit into the matrix of dominance that is prescribed to him by society, “Be a hunter! Be a rapist! Be the breadwinner! - then he will be considered worthless, a loser, a fake man.
When gender relations in Russia are discussed, the thesis about female power is very often heard. This discussion about women's power, discussing it, of course, somehow obscures the issue of gender inequality. Or formulates it differently. In fact, what kind of patriarchy can we talk about? What kind of feminism can we talk about? Women do have resources because they work. And not only because of this, but because they have their own special female power. And such discussions are typical not only for our society. Recently, even in literature, a genre has appeared that researchers call “stervology.” These are various collections, instructions, certain house-building, guides to action, written by psychologists who discuss how women can manipulate men. And in this category of “bitch,” where there is almost obscene (profanity) language (in any case, this term is clearly not of an encouraging nature), two images of women seem to be integrated into one. On the one hand, a woman who achieves her goals dishonestly uses power illegitimately. On the other hand, she is still a subject, has her own goals, knows how to defend and promote them. But she does it in dishonest ways. Uses so-called female power.
We propose, together with my colleague Anna Temkina and other researchers, to say that this kind of female power is the power of the weak. This power of manipulators, of course, is associated with prescribed roles. And what is this female power? This is the power of seduction, this is the power of intrigue. This is power that is not recognized as a real struggle for one’s rights. This is simply using your position to control this poor man. The man is the head and the woman is the neck. This power is only used because patriarchy works. That women lack normal resources. Then, being real subjects, they resort to these very least legitimate methods. This is where the power of the weak lies. And to the extent that a woman is not allowed to compete on equal terms with a man for any significant benefits, she begins to use these behind-the-scenes tactics in order to achieve her goals. The conclusion is this: the power of the weak exists. And female power as such, as the power of manipulators, as the power of intriguers - it exists as the power of the weak. If there is no patriarchy that excludes and segregates, then there will be no power for the weak.
How are gender roles formed?
K list
State mechanisms, legal, political and ideological, work to exploit socially organized differences between the sexes to their advantage. And they promote certain ideologies about what roles men should have, what roles women should have. The state acts, one might say, normatively and exerts moral pressure. It prescribes laws and in this sense can construct masculinity and femininity in different ways.
Gender patterns, how we will live as men and women, are of course of interest to everyone. But people don't always know them. And they are, of course, related to the specific context in which you find yourself. People are not always sensitive to gender injustice. Or to gender inequality. Because they internalize certain ideas about male and female roles. They internalize old, archaic ideas that are moralized. Let's give an example. There is an idea that a woman, by her nature, can care for the weak and sick much better than a man. She is naturally caring. She is empathic, soft, warm, feminine. This is the essence of femininity. If this is how the model of correct femininity is constructed, then it is opposed to ideas about correct masculinity. A man is seen as incapable of this feeling, incapable of this empathy and care. Only, probably, he is forced to do this. Such rigid ideas about masculinity and femininity, about male and female roles, actually limit the possibilities of choice and the degree of human freedom. Beliefs about proper masculinity and proper femininity operate as barriers to gender equality.
A long history of women's social participation in paid work is evident in our gender order. We have professional women. And in this sense, we are, in principle, quite high in the gender equality index, in terms of how women work, Russia is very close to Europe. Russia has a fairly long tradition, deep-rooted practices, reproducing many generations, of combining paid work with family concerns. In this sense, a woman is a strategically very active subject; she knows how to combine household roles and the roles of a working person. We lack social support for this balance of roles. And support from the state. Although in recent years the state has been making efforts to support the combination of roles by women. But we have a clear gender imbalance in that men are not emancipated enough and are not included enough in household chores. And this makes us very different from the countries of Western Europe, where gender equality in the domestic sphere has found its practical expression to a much greater extent. A man takes leave to care for a child, no one considers this to be any special feat or oddity. Society is sensitive to the fact that we have problems with the male gender to a greater extent than with the female gender, if we speak in the category of gender equality. Because in order to ensure gender equality, it is necessary that men also be able to cross the boundaries of the roles that are prescribed for them.
The second significant difference is our heterosexual matrix. This is completely obvious. If in Western Europe there is a policy of inclusiveness towards people with same-sex sexual orientation, then Russia takes a completely different position in this regard. She believes that this kind of openness is unacceptable. In this she is completely conservative. And this conservatism is an openly declared position of Russian legislation, Russian ideology and the media.
Gender issues are sensitive to different age groups. Let's just say, to different stages of a person's life path. Society and the state are extremely active in discussing gender imbalances in reproductive age. And they talk all the time about whether more nurseries are needed, whether to build a perinatal center. Or extend maternity leave to men. Of course, there is resistance to these trends. But, in any case, this is problematized. However, if we talk about people who are at a different stage of their life path, for example, at pre-retirement or retirement age, we will see that they are faced with a completely different, but gender-specific problem. We can call it the “sandwich generation” problem or syndrome. What does this mean? You know what a sandwich is - it's a sandwich. A person who finds himself in a sandwich position is in a state of pressure between two types of obligations. At least two, maybe more. Caught between these two obligations. The children have just grown up, and you seem to have achieved everything at work, and then your parents or grandparents begin to get sick. And this new challenge completely takes the person by surprise. Because the state helps much less in caring for the elderly than in caring for children. This is already the end of life, this is not a productive class or social category. Therefore, we must ensure their survival. How a family will cope with the care and care of frail older relatives is a family matter. And this is again a gender question: whose business is it? Who will provide direct, hands-on, hands-on care for a sick elderly person whose condition is very fragile? And, of course, this is again a professional being who is professionally socialized as capable of caring.
Conservative turn
K list
I would like to start with the fact that in general, gender issues in Russian society for quite a long time attracted the attention of only a very narrow circle of activists and researchers. In general, there was no mass interest in this issue. And suddenly changes occurred, gender issues began to be politicized, and very strongly. This starts around the mid-2000s. That is, this is President Putin’s second term. He announces that Russia faces a demographic problem. Outlines three strategies for solving it. And he claims that one of the ways to solve the demographic crisis in Russia is to increase childbearing. And women need to be encouraged to have children.
The law on maternity capital is progressing and being adopted very quickly. When it turns out: give birth to a second child, help Russian citizens solve a very important demographic issue, this child will be three years old, and the woman will receive so-called maternity capital . Public discussions began: can a certain amount really serve as an incentive for a reproductive decision, how to formulate it, and what the real consequences of this law are. Feminist criticism was voiced because we were talking about maternal capital. Pretty soon it began to be called family capital. But in real practice, a woman can actually receive this money. The purposes for which maternity capital could be spent were also discussed. As we know, according to the law, there were initially only three such goals. This is a solution to the housing issue, mother’s pension savings and children’s education. This Procrustean bed of three purposes for using this money turned out to be extremely narrow. The attitude of the state towards citizens is, on the one hand, paternalistic, and on the other hand, strictly controlling - “We know what you need to spend your money on. And you, with your needs, adapt yourself,” reproduced Soviet models. Although the amount is quite large, especially since it was indexed. From 2007 to 2016, the maternity capital program operated. And it is clear that it may not solve the problem of the demographic crisis, but to a certain extent it improves the situation of families. Families are counting on her. And, in general, this measure problematizes gender for the first time.
The second point is related to the introduction of some amendments to the law on reproductive rights. The fact is that we have mass initiatives that call for a radical revision of the very liberal law on abortion . Or ban it completely. There is a mobilization of conservatives, who are actually called pro-lifers. These are those who, when discussing the issue of reproductive rights, are categorically against women having reproductive rights at all. These conservatives who radically want to ban abortion are not getting their way. But changes in abortion legislation are taking place, and partly these amendments lead to its tightening. This is the second, so to speak, point of the politicization of gender. Because there the question arises whether a woman has the right to control her body or whether she should be prohibited from doing so altogether. Or she should do this only with the consent of her man, partner, and so on.
The third point related to conservative mobilization concerns the juvenile justice law . Quite a complex discussion. The fact is that Russia had to sign the law on juvenile justice. Conservatives are categorically against this law. For two reasons. On the one hand, they say they have a liberal argument. It lies in the fact that if the state interferes in private life, then this is a space of corruption, intervention and pressure. And limits parental rights. On the other hand, under the same guise, no measures are taken to alleviate the situation of children who end up in places of detention and who are prosecuted by law. They say that the family should decide everything. “In a family, roles should be clearly defined. What rights can a child have?!” After all, the law on juvenile justice is based on the rights of the child. “No child’s rights! Only the rights of the father and the rights of the mother!” This model of the traditional family stands out. And this is also a conservative attack, so as not to use the word “attack.”
Next we talk about the Gender Equality Law . In order to truly combat discrimination, it was necessary to pass through parliament a law on gender equality with certain wording. This is international law. This law is being blocked and is not being adopted. Why? Because conservatives oppose the category “gender”. And this is a rather interesting moment for us. They say that "gender" is an alien term, borrowed. Moreover, proponents of the gender approach argue that models and roles of masculinity and femininity, male and female behavior are socially constructed. And if they are socially constructed, they can be changed. You can choose them. They are not prescribed by the state, biology, or religious dogma. And if so, then by using the category “gender” in legislative acts, we thereby pursue a policy of choosing sexual orientation and gender roles.
Conservative turn (continued)
K list
Who are these conservatives?
First of all, there are public initiatives . These public initiatives are various organizations that seem to have been created independently of the support of government agencies. Indeed, there are people who actively believe in both the God-given nature and the naturalness of established roles based on gender. They have strong support from the Russian Orthodox Church , the Russian Orthodox Church. They have strong support in one of the segments of the political elite . That is why, strictly speaking, they turn out to be quite a serious force in society and in public discourse.
I did not name another legislative initiative related to the law prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality . This law, which caused a debate, was nevertheless adopted at the federal level. It is, of course, exclusionary, it is repressive. He is a powerful affirmation of the heterosexual matrix. Thus, we see this as a manifestation of conservative positions in the legal field, in the discursive field. And in one of the president’s speeches, conservative ideology was called the ideology of the Russian political establishment. That is, this conservatism, which manifests itself in promoting the values of the patriarchal family, the rigid heterosexual matrix, and the idea of gender roles, is the ideology that claims hegemony, that is, dominance. Because anyone who speaks against this will be regarded as dissidents. Or as dissenters or those who do not fit into the mainstream of this ideology, which constantly refers us to traditional values, to Russian culture, to Orthodox, to Christian values.
And, of course, there is resistance to this conservative wave. But at the level of everyday life, when people simply ignore all this and find opportunities to solve the problems they face on their own. Ignoring the ideological offensive of the conservatives. On the other hand, there is feminist mobilization. It's still small. Maybe not even feminist, but towards gender equality. When people highlight and problematize and discuss and so on. Therefore, it seems to me that we live in a society where the complete dominance of conservatives simply cannot be realized technologically. Neither borders can be closed nor discourse can be completely censored. Therefore, I am inclined to consider the conservative turn as one of the cycles of political development, political dynamics, which will sooner or later be replaced by another wave. But conservatives are quite strong in our society, which once again reminds us that our gender order is largely preserved as traditional and patriarchal. With a stable idea of models of masculinity and femininity, with justification of gender boundaries by natural, biological or even religious factors.
The material was prepared by Irina Kosterina as part of the joint project COLTA.RU and the Heinrich Böll Foundation
Project idea: Irina Kosterina Coordinator and logistician: Yulia Ostrovskaya Director: Dmitry Vakulin Cameraman: Kirill Begishev Editing: Irina Savina Illustrations: Elena Zaikina
Other materials from the course “Gender for Dummies”:
What is family policy? Who needs motherhood and why? What is sexual identity? What is feminism? What is masculinity? What is violence? What is paternity? How are gender norms structured in the North Caucasus?
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Subjecting people to gender norms
According to Sean Byrne's research, there are three types of human conformity to social norms. The first is compliance, it manifests itself as a person’s approval of social norms that are unacceptable to him, and adjustment to them in order to avoid condemnation, punishment and in the hope of approval of his behavior by society.
Next comes approval, that is, the person’s complete agreement with the presented gender norms. The third type is identification, a person behaves in full accordance with the role model of behavior presented to him in society.
Related concepts
To better understand what gender is, you need to know two key concepts:
Masculinity. This is a set of physical (male figure, facial and body hair), psychological (rudeness) and behavioral (competition, desire to make a career) characteristics characteristic of men. The closest synonym for this word is “masculinity.” Masculinity should not be confused with manliness (calling a woman courageous implies her courage and independence, and not her similarity to a man).
Femininity . This is a set of characteristics characteristic of women. These include external signs (feminine figure, lack of body hair), psychological (tenderness, sensitivity) and behavioral (caring, compassionate, capriciousness).
Masculinity and femininity are two opposite poles, and every person is somewhere between them. For example, a man who shaves every day, keeps his hairstyle and nails clean is closer to femininity than the one who grows a thick beard and believes that the smell of sweat adds masculinity to him.
Both masculinity and femininity imply a wide range of characteristics. Some of them are due to nature, some are due to upbringing and stereotypes existing in society, and some are due to the personal choice of a person and his activities (for example, women who row have a very low voice and a masculine figure).
There are several more terms directly related to the concept of gender that are useful to know, since they are increasingly found in literature and the press:
- gender identity - the internal sense of belonging to a certain sex, the desire to look and behave in a certain way (not related to sexual orientation);
- postgenderism is a social movement for the complete elimination of gender differences in human society;
- metrosexual is a modern man who is characterized by feminine characteristics of behavior (the desire to look stylish and well-groomed), views on relationships and the absence of gender stereotypes;
- retrosexual - a man who defends stereotypical (traditional) views on relationships between men and women.
