The question of gender inequality

“ 7x7 ” publishes the text of the speech of Syktyvkarka Sofya Shimanskaya , which on April 3 took part in the opening of the Lecture “ Pythagorov Stan ” . As its organizers told, their goal is “the popularization of scientific thought, useful public initiatives, unique experience, as well as all the most interesting and mysterious that the human mind keeps in itself!” It is planned that the meetings will be held at least once a month.

The topic in this short review will be discussed in Russia if it is covered with some kind of cautious and extreme delicacy. By formulating the central idea, we will begin with the main thesis: we are talking about gender discrimination, the problem of stereotyping and bias in relation to a person associated with his gender. In modern society, in particular, in domestic sociology and in the mass consciousness, the problem of gender discrimination directly and to some extent erroneously equates to feminism, implying an ideology and socio-political movements aimed at protecting the rights of women as a discriminated class.

Nevertheless, I would like to highlight the problem of gender inequality in a wider sense than this happens in classical feminism. The different currents of the feminist movement to one degree or another discredit or completely ignore the issue of discrimination of men and its manifestations in society, positioning examples of it as insignificant and “deserved”, denying the existence of reverse sexism. I will not pay considerable attention in this article by the refutation of the institutionally fixed discrimination of the female sex, but in the context of the question of gender discrimination, we will talk about infringements on the sexual basis of any member of the society. This is a problem equally significant for society as a whole and should not remain stereotypically signed under the auspices of female emancipation and feminism. Highlighting individual social groups in this matter, raising the question "Who is to blame?" We make it difficult to understand and solve the problem as a whole.

The problems of gender differences as a direction of sociological research began to be developed in the 50s of the XX century, when the separation of the concepts of gender as a biological quantity and Gender as a sociocultural construct, formed as a result of human interaction with society, was first proposed. Key theses were formulated by Sumtot Parsons and later received their development in sociology. Over time, various theories from the regions of psychology, anthropology, political and philosophical theories were processed and developed in the context of gender research: the theory of natural law, anarchism of various movements, libertarian. A significant impact on the emergence and development of gender theory was provided by classical psychoanalysis and the work of neoframedists, in particular, some humanistic ideas of Erich Fromm. Psychoanalysis, which determines the formation of ideas about the male and female beginning, the stereotype of behavior, in the early stages of the psychosexual development of a person through the perception of cultural templates and symbolisms, divided the biological sociocultural significance of gender identification. Anthropological, historical research and research in the field of ethology and zoopsychology changed the ideas about the “normal” and “natural” behavior of male and female individuals, describing the intraspecific interaction of various animals and the social relations of historical societies. The great spread of socialist views and the development of anarchism of different movements also aroused an increased interest in gender research.

All these theories received a wide response in the 70s in the context of the “second wave” of the movement of feminism, when the female movement focused on the social situation of the woman, the issues of discrimination in the cultural, economic sphere and in personal life. In this regard, the problem of destroying stereotypes about the so -called “female destiny”, stereotypical expectations of certain behaviors, gradually gained evidence, scientific base, and gender studies turned out to be increasingly popular.

Now gender studies exist as a full -fledged section of sociology, deeply related to various social problems: research of sexuality and sexual discrimination problems, studying the structure of the family, interaction between partners, and reproductive issues. Modern gender theory has its goal the maximum rejection of essentialism, explanation of the characteristics of social interaction gender.

On the issue of gender inequality, the key moments are various social barriers that a person faces in his life depending on his gender, sexual orientation and life principles as a whole. These are career and economic obstacles, public condemnation and pressure associated with going beyond gender stereotypes and the expected human behavior. In modern Russia - here it is worth clarifying that talking about modern Russia as a multinational and multicultural state, in principle, is quite difficult, especially in the context of stereotyping: it is always worthwhile to separately highlight the existence of a huge Muslim community in the Russian Federation, where gender problems have special manifestations and deeply rooted sociocultural history - stereotypical pressure is sensitive both for women and for women and for women men. On the approved society, a comfortable life can now count in fact exclusively heterosexual cis-female women and cis-muzhins (people with a coincident biological sex and gender self-determination), following socially approved templates in the adoption of life decisions. The heterosexual cis-mushroom is obliged to strive to create and provide financially a family, protect the country, having served in military service, to represent a stereotypical image of hegemonic masculinity, to demonstrate strength, aggression, leadership, to reopard the “female” features as much as possible. “A little more beautiful than the monkey”, “Real Beast”, “He did not serve - not a man” - the most banal stereotypical structures that strengthened in society. Obstructures are to one degree or another, men who do not correspond to a given gender model are subjected to, and in some cases this can reach the absurd - refusal to take care of themselves, discredit family relations, choosing a non -violent way of solving problems. A separate history is widespread homophobia, which just stems from gender stereotypes and is probably the most dangerous manifestation of it for men.

Despite the fact that it is formally believed that sexism cannot be determined in relation to men, since sexism implies a combination of prejudices and power, and women do not have institutional power, they are less represented in power structures, it is actually that restrictions and strict precepts in the legislation of the Russian Federation relate to men: compulsory military service, significant legal imbalance in family legislation and family legislation and family legislation. Criminal Code. In social terms, the discrimination of men is built on the rigid consolidation of gender roles and the heritage of a centuries -old emphasizing the shame and unworthy of any manifestation of femininity. If a man manifests himself “like a woman”, then he equates himself to a second-grade person. And, despite the fact that usually classic feminism is inclined to ignore these issues, explaining this to a centuries -old injustice built by the patriarchal system and positioning examples of gender stereotyping in relation to men as frivolous and not as significant as female, I emphasize that I do not see the meaning in solving the problems of gender discrimination through the gender Discrimination and belittling of other people's problems.

Manifestations of discrimination against women have deep roots in patriarchal history, slowly dying in our time. Even the heterosexual cis-feminine, corresponding to a socially approved template, is subjected to a huge pressure. First of all, this, of course, is the imposition of a mandatory reproductive function - regardless of social status, education, goals and choice, it is assumed that a woman should strive to have a child. Reproductive slavery, which is manifested in the most severe aggression in relation to abortion, career and economic restrictions like refusing the workplace for young specialists due to confidence in the near decree, information of care and appearance, the girl’s lifetime for preparing for the healing and birth of the child. A woman is positioned and perceived as a weak creature, whose main goal is to give birth to healthy offspring and devote her life to its cultivation. The second, side purpose of the woman’s existence is to be a “decoration” of society, to represent an aesthetically pleasant object for others. Social norms are refused to lead a free lifestyle, to have multiple sexual ties, or on the contrary - not to strive to attract the sexual attention of men. Mutual exclusive requirements turn out to be absurd, which is why to one degree or another, every woman is subjected to obstruction and aggression by others. The “feminine” qualities - peacefulness, modesty, are ridiculed, “masculine” features in a woman are condemned. The desire to correspond to the approved gender model turns into a joke, discrediting, female images broadcast in the media are caricatured and offensive. At the same time, women who do not correspond to the gender stereotype are faced with aggression or condescension. The problem of the family violence, growing from year to year, the number of rape, the victim accusations translated in the media, bills on the issuance of abortion from the OMS program - diverse elements of restrictions on the freedom of women's activity appear regularly in everyday life. The Russian Orthodox Church, of course, adds oils into the fire: it is enough to evaluate the proposal of the Moscow Patriarchate to abandon the term "family violence" as a position that destroys "the prestige of the family in society." The problem of violence against women is blurred and positioned as a subsection, a private manifestation of domestic violence in principle, but the conditions and origins of different manifestations of violence vary, and the approach to their elimination should vary.

There is also a pleasant tendency to declare that the heritage of the Soviet period approved the position of the woman as an equal member of society. Labor is a universal duty. But the actual state of things is rubbed behind the formalities. Indeed, in Russia, as in the USSR, the restriction of women in the right to work is not manifested so much, but this does not remove public pressure on the maintenance, maintenance of the family - men and children. Thus, an eight -hour working day turns into a twelve -hour, taking into account the implementation of household chores, and strives for infinity when include in it binding from the point of view of society, caring for its appearance. The legacy of the USSR in our case is a tripled number of working hours and at the level of genetic memory the delayed struggle for men, as a scarce product. The husband does not pay attention to the children and does not help the house - say thanks for what is at all, and that does not hit. And if he beats - at least there is. For representatives of a slightly more intellectually and financially held class, such a position already seems like a wildness, but nevertheless, a huge percentage of the country's population lives precisely in a position when life turns into hell, and there are no financial or economic options.

In general, the problem of discrimination, any discrimination, whether racial, gender, sexual: any prejudice comes from a misunderstanding of the issue, completing the logical chains with comfortable stereotypical constructions, ordinary xenophobia at an instinctive level. A person is afraid of what he does not understand, fear gives rise to the desire to ridicule and humiliate, make sure of his own superiority. In the case of gender discrimination, the settlement of the absolutely legal equality of people in the human mind, regardless of their gender, is complicated by the fact that equality cannot be reduced to equating. You cannot refuse the fact that women and men are different at the biological level. A woman has an exceptional reproductive function, a whole set of atavistic instincts and hormonal regulators affecting her behavior, as well as a man. The biological component can affect the conscious activity of a person to a greater or lesser extent, and the awareness of the mechanisms of this influence is the key to adequate relationships and absolute utopia with the current average level of education in Russia.

In general, in the domestic tradition, the problems of gender inequality and discrimination are almost completely ignored by sauce of various kinds of arguments. The most common is the position on the so -called "naturalness", the heads of the destinations of certain people in connection with their gender. A woman - to give birth and patronize, to a man - to serve and protect, to copulate exclusively heterosexual, to fear strangers and love their homeland. This simplest position is promoted in Russia at the state level and is not criticized by the overwhelming majority of the population, and we can regularly see its manifestations with an advantage in one direction or another, some of which were already described above. There is no single “natural” model of the family, society and male and female behavior. Studies in the field of anthropology, zoopsychology and ethology clearly show that the variability of relations in animal communities and in society, which have been formed throughout the history of mankind, radically vary, and there is no reason to declare one of the modes naturally. In principle, one existence of such an approach is already an explanation and justification of movements to overcome gender discrimination.

Another objection of the relevance of the gender question, called in one article “voluntary modus”, suggests that legally in our state, the equality of the rights of men and women, as well as all other groups of people, are enshrined in our state. The possibilities are the same for everyone, and the abandonment of them is motivated by their personal preferences that are not related to some gender role imposed on top. And if so, what we are talking about: after all, we are positioning a liberal society as a society of free choice, and if it so happened that the percentage of women in a serious business or in politics is negligible (14% in the State Duma, 4% in the Federation Council, 10% in military service (and more often in the civil service)), and men occupied by the household, in general, this is, in general, the problem of women and men personally, their persons. choice. This position is quite widespread in Russia, although to a lesser extent than the first, and in general it encourages a little more, because ignoring social problems is quite easy to overcome in the heads of people, paying attention to specific problems and destroying the illusion of the so -called “right of choice”.

The third approach is that we still live in Russia. What gender problems can be discussed in a country where problems, economic, political and social, so much that if you solve them in terms of significance, the line will reach gender discrimination in 50 years in a good situation. Enlightenment in psychosexual and gender issues in a country where, in principle, a huge percentage of schoolchildren does not know, the processes of occurring during pregnancy and that such a contraception is an unattainable utopia in principle. It's hard to argue with this. There is a completely direct correlation between the standard of living, education, legal culture, and Russia in this context remains the country of third world.

There are various problems in Russian society, different groups of people are infringed on, by sexual, sexual, age, national, economic and physical attributes, and most of these prejudices are really related to insufficient education, misunderstanding of the subject, but to refuse to work out these issues - in principle, the same as refusing to solve the problem of rape, motivating it because people are beaten by the fact that since people are beaten by people The streets, they will be raped where you go.

All issues of legal culture are resolved by education. Remember the huge campaign for freedom of shooting conducted in the blogosphere and on YouTube several years ago. Over and over again, getting into conflict situations, people extended information about a person’s right to freedom. Enlightenment in any field works in the same way. I am well aware that the audience that has read this article up to this point is a slightly more intellectually seized section of society than most of the country that is not interested in legal issues. And even for conscious people who are critical of the information that they are offered, discrimination issues often seem unobvious.

Gender discrimination, especially with a separate emphasis on the movement of feminism - the topic is very thin and requires a neat approach, soil check. The movement of feminism is very discredited in the minds of people and external criticism and its individual representatives. But for me it turned out to be a pleasant surprise to the performance with this topic at the lecture hall: most of the questions that were asked, made it clear to me that at least in some part of society the idea of ​​human natural rights is formed in a healthy direction, stereotypes are rethought, social problems pop up and attract attention. Understanding the most important theses, raising the correct questions and the coverage of the ignored problems remains the task that should be worked out and solved. Gender discrimination is a social problem that is reflected in the life of every person and originates in legal culture as a whole. Feminism - as the main “client” of the problem of gender inequality, is positioned and is often understood distorted. The problems of discrimination always rest on the level of education and understanding of the issue, and the education and proper statement of the issues are the key to a gradual change in attitude towards them. What is a natural purpose? What is the difference between a man and a woman and what does she affect? What is sexual orientation and how is it determined? Why is the role and behavior of men and women in society stereotyped? In general, any thesis should be checked by the question “why” and “why”, and if at some point there is no answer to these questions, or the answer is not backed up by facts, then a mistake was made that will lead to erroneous and template conclusions.