The problems of mastering the roles of men and women

The importance of the gender category for understanding the psychological characteristics of an individual and the specifics of his life path is proved by numerous experimental and theoretical studies. However, in Soviet psychology, the problems of sex are so poorly represented that it gave the basis for IS Kon to call it "asexual".Only in recent years the situation began to change: a number of survey and empirical works on the problem of sexual socialization was published. One of the steps in this direction is the research project of the Academy of Sciences of the former USSR "Socio-psychological problems of socialization and assimilation of sexual roles", devoted to the analysis of the features of the position of men and women in the former USSR, the factors of the success of gender socialization and functioning. This article is a summary of the theoretical concept of this study.

The results of works carried out over the past 15 years give more and more evidence in favor of socio-cultural determination of gender differences. Until recently, the existence of three types of sex differences independent of environmental factors and upbringing( spatial imagination, mathematical abilities, verbal intelligence) was firmly established, then the latest data obtained already in the 1980s show that evenfor these parameters, biologically determined differences are not observed.

At the same time, in everyday life, we are constantly in one form or another confronted with differences between the sexes, which in many respects are a reflection of some implicit agreement on the possibility of manifesting certain qualities. In the most generalized form they are represented by stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. A man is strong, independent, active, aggressive, rational, focused on individual achievements, instrumental;a woman - weak, dependent, passive, soft, emotional, oriented to others, expressive, etc. The sex-role stereotypes existing in the society exert a great influence on the process of socialization of children, largely determining its orientation. Based on their ideas about the qualities that are characteristic of men and women, parents( and other educators), often themselves without realizing it, encourage children to manifest precisely these, polospecific features.

It is interesting that such behavior is not a reaction to the real differences between children. This is demonstrated, in particular, by experiments with the fictitious sex of the child. So, for example, regardless of the real sex, if the baby was presented to the observers as a boy, his behavior was described as more active, fearless and cheerful than when he was considered a girl. At the same time, the negative emotions of the "boy" were perceived as expressions of anger, and in the "girl" - fear. Thus, the social world from the very beginning turns to the boy and the girl by different sides.

Let's consider the specifics of the socialization situation for each gender. Whatever the process of assimilation of the sexual role in various psychological orientations, the influence that the people exert on the child, serving as a model of polespecific behavior and the source of information about the sexual role, is unquestionable. In this sense, the boy is in a much less favorable situation than the girl. So, the mother traditionally spends much more time with a young child. Father sees the child a little less often, not in such significant situations, so usually in the eyes of an infant he is less attractive object. In this regard, both for the girl and the boy in virtually any culture, the primary is the identification with the mother, that is, the feminine. Moreover, the basic orientations of the child in relation to the world are feminine by nature, for they include such traditionally female characteristics as dependence, subordination, passivity, etc.

Thus, in terms of the development of gender identity, the boy has to solve a more difficult task: to change the initial female identification to the male one on the model of significant adult men and cultural standards of masculinity. However, the solution of this task is complicated by the fact that almost all those with whom the child is close, especially in modern Russian society( kindergarten teachers, doctors, teachers) are women. Not surprisingly, as a result, boys are much less aware of the behavior that corresponds to the male sexual role, than the female one.

At the same time, the prevalence of traditional ideas about the hierarchical relationship of gender roles leads to the fact that, compared with girls, boys experience stronger pressure from the society towards the formation of polo-specific behavior. Earlier attention is paid to this, the value of the corresponding sexual role and the danger of avoiding it are more emphasized, and the male stereotypes themselves are much narrower and categorical.

In combination with the lack of role models, this pressure leads to the fact that the boy is forced to build his or her sexual identity mainly on a negative basis: not to look like girls, not to participate in female activities, etc. However, in our country the child hasrelatively few opportunities for the actual masculine manifestations( for example, aggression, independence, motor activity, etc.), since adults treat them quite ambivalently, as a source of anxiety.(Evidence of the prevalence of this attitude is psychotherapeutic practice, in which hyperactivity and aggressiveness, regardless of the sex of the child, are much more common reasons for appealing parents for help than lethargy and inhibition.) Therefore, adult stimulation is also predominantly negative: not encouraging "masculine"manifestations, and punishment for "non-muzhskie."As an example, we can cite a typical parental saying "it's not a shame to cry, you're a boy", and the male ways of responding to offense are either not offered or depreciated( "you can not fight").Thus, the child is required to do something that is not clear enough for him, and is based on reasons he does not understand, with the help of threats and anger of those who are close to him. This state of things leads to an increase in anxiety, which is often manifested in excessive efforts to be masculine and panicky fear of doing something feminine. As a result, male identity is formed primarily as a result of identifying yourself with some status position, or the social myth "what should be a man".Not surprisingly, the identity created on this basis is diffuse, easily vulnerable and at the same time very rigid.

The social pressure on the boy is especially increased with the transition to the public education system-preschool or school, because, on the one hand, teachers and educators are distinguished by a significantly higher traditionalism, and on the other, parents themselves, preparing the child for a meeting with a new one for himsituation of social evaluation, increase the rigidity of their regulatory standards.

All this leads to a moment in the boy's socialization, when he needs to "disown" from the "female world", his values ​​and create his own, male. The transition to this stage usually begins in 8-12 years, when the first children's companies are formed, close interpersonal relationships with peers are formed, on which the boy can now rely on as a source of male role models and the sphere of realization of masculine qualities. This process, called the male protest, is characterized by vivid negativism towards girls and the formation of a special "masculine", an emphatically rough and sharp style of communication.

This exaggerated notion of masculinity, focused on the most striking features of the brutal male image, is somewhat softened and becomes more egalitarian only in the future. According to Western sources, this occurs at the beginning of adolescence, when the boy manages to defend his identification from the pressure of the female world. However, the lack of opportunities characteristic for our country for the formation and manifestation of masculinity suggests that this process is even more complicated and dramatic, and ends much later. Thus, changes in everyday life that have occurred in recent decades have led to the fact that there are almost no "men's affairs" and the boy does not have the opportunity to prove himself to be a real man in the family, where the child first acquires a sexual role. Although such changes in the domestic sphere have occurred in almost all developed countries, and we are even less pronounced, the peculiarity of the situation is that it is equally difficult for a boy to manifest himself outside the family. An intensive ban on negative manifestations of masculinity( smoking, drunkenness, fights) is combined in our society with a negative attitude towards activity, competition and to various forms of manifestation of aggression.(It should be noted that the tolerance of parents and educators for child aggression varies greatly in different cultures, according to cross-cultural studies, American parents are 8-11 times more tolerant of aggression than in all other societies studied.) At the same time, social channels formanifestations of aggression in acceptable forms( sports, games) are clearly not enough for us. The situation with other "socialized" types of masculine activity of children and adolescents( technical construction, hobbies, independent participation in professional activities, etc.), which could become a powerful source of forming a positive male identity, is not much better.

A particularly sad phenomenon in terms of forming models of masculinity is the school. So, the research conducted by A.V. Volovich showed that among those graduating class students, which most correspond to school requirements, the overwhelming majority( 85%) are girls. And the young men who fall into this category differed from the others in the traditionally feminine qualities( exemplary behavior, perseverance, diligence, etc.), while the qualities characterizing intelligence or social activity were practically not represented.

In this regard, it is interesting to recall the peculiarities of the Soviet pedagogical system, distinguished by Yu. Bron-fenbrenner, that distinguish it from the one adopted in the USA: the assessment of the activity and personality of students on the contribution they made to the overall result;use as methods of influence public criticism or praise;recognition of the most important duty of everyone to help other members of the team. Thus, primarily feminine qualities are encouraged: orientation to others, affiliation and expressive tendencies. Apparently, such a difference in the possibilities of manifesting masculinity is initially due to the different orientation of upbringing. If the most common view of the purposes of education in the US is of an emphatically masculine nature: "In American culture children are encouraged to be independent and independent," for the Soviet Union this orientation is more feminine: "a child should be a worthy member of the collective."

What is the overall picture? Constant and persistent demands: "be a man", "you behave not like a man", "you are a boy", combined with the lack of opportunities to form and manifest a male type of behavior in any of the spheres of life. It can be assumed that this situation leads primarily to passivity, the abandonment of activities that are proposed to perform in feminine form and on a par with girls. It is better to be passive than "not a man", because it still has the ability to attribute to itself a whole set of masculine qualities, believing that they could manifest themselves in a different, more appropriate situation.

There is another way to find opportunities for manifesting masculinity - this time not in dreams, but on an extra-social basis. First of all, it is striking that most of the members of informal associations of adolescents who have recently appeared in large numbers in our country are boys, and masculinity is emphasized both in appearance( leather, metal) and in basic values ​​(the cult of risk, strength) and the way of spending free time( fights, strength exercises, motorcycle racing, etc.) - Thus, deviant behavior acts as an additional channel for mastering the male sexual role, since the opportunities provided in this plan withtsiumom small.

Having discussed the difficulties of male socialization, we will analyze the features of the assimilation of the female sexual role.

The newborn girl "carries", of course, more. She has a corresponding half-role model from the very beginning, so she will not have to give up her primary identification with her mother in the future. Doctors, kindergarten teachers, teachers will only help her to form an adequate image of herself as a woman. The lack of a rigid stereotype of a "real woman" in culture, the diversity of ideas about truly feminine qualities also facilitate the formation of gender identity, giving the girl ample opportunities to conform to the stereotype, remaining herself. At the same time, as modern research shows, already in the relationship of the girl with her mother there are specific problems that have serious consequences for her gender socialization.

One of the most important tasks of the formation of a child's personality is the destruction of the primary symbiotic dyad "mother-child" in which the child does not perceive himself and does not actually exist as a separate subject. Especially actual carrying out of borders between itself and mother is for the girl, as by virtue of specificity of own experience( to be the woman, the daughter, etc.) the mother is inclined more to perceive as the continuation the daughter, instead of the son. This manifests itself in a multitude of small details: closer physical contact with the baby-girl, greater restriction of motor activity, often assigning any needs to the daughter for the basis of identification with her. As a result, the relationship of the girl with the mother becomes not only more symbiotic and intense than the boy, they are also more charged with ambivalence. This pushes the girl in search of another person who could also give her a sense of security and confidence, but at the same time would not conceal the threat of dissolution of the still weak child in a familiar dyad.

Very soon it turns out that in addition to the always nearby mother there is one more person - a father whose importance and significance are strongly emphasized by others. And most often this particular "important" person gives the girl relatively little attention. The desire to attract him can be associated with a number of negative experiences: first, a sense of his own secondary nature in comparison with the attractive world of men;secondly, the need to somehow express themselves, demonstrate, in order to gain attention. Somewhat coarsening, we can say that it is the intertwining of these two tendencies in the future that determines the specificity of the sex-role socialization of the girl. So, for example, the empirical evidence obtained in the West suggests that the behavior of preschool girls is limited by the intervention of parents twice as often as the behavior of their sons. Naturally, this situation also contributes to the formation of a girl's sense of insignificance.

This experience is further exacerbated by the influence of traditional cultural patterns. Numerous studies of literature and television programs for children have shown almost everywhere that the most important characteristic of the image of the woman offered in them is his invisibility: women are much less represented in the main roles, names, pictures, their activities are less interesting and socially rewarded, most oftencomes down to helping the hero-man. Based on these data, it is not surprising that from the age of 5-6 years onwards, the number of girls saying that they would like to be boys, and playing boys' games, far exceeds the number of boys expressing cross-sexual preferences.

In Soviet works for children, along with a similar image of women, there is another, an example of which can serve as a "mom-cook" or "mom-policeman" from S. Mikhalkov's poem: enumerating different professions, the curtain considers it necessary to emphasize: "Moms need different", Clearly assuming that if children are not taught, they will be guided by the" evaluation "of mothers for their professional status. Thus, a child from childhood learns the need to combine a female role with a professional, and the question of their hierarchy remains open. At the same time, male and professional roles are presented as identical, since no other masculine manifestations are practically not described anywhere. As a result, the female role looks not only secondary, but also heavier, with a double load. Thus, if the achievement of gender identity is given to a girl more easily than to a boy, the formation of a half-way preferences( a higher appraisal of the whole female) proves to be considerably hampered. However, a positive solution to this problem can be found with the support of previous experience, in which it already succeeded( if it was possible - to play a great role here the character of relations with the father in childhood) to achieve recognition by showing one's own activity. At the same time, it is of great importance that the girl has a lot of opportunities for manifesting the actual female activities and a sufficient number of samples, which she can follow at the same time.

So, for example, a model of socialization that is quite successful in this respect develops in a family where, while doing everyday women's affairs( cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.), without which it is impossible to imagine the life of any Soviet family, the girl accustoms herself to responsibility and activity. To a large extent this is facilitated by the school, where the main emphasis, as we wrote above, is put on the development of unconventional female qualities. Girls engaged in public work( that is, showing additional activity) in our schools are much more than boys. This is natural, since the social activity carried out within the framework of the school most often implies the establishment and maintenance of broad contacts with other people( classmates, sponsored, etc.), which corresponds to the female stereotype of behavior. At the same time, this situation leads to the formation of differences between the sexes, which do not correspond to the traditional ones. Thus, in the study of E.V.Novikova showed that high school students are more responsible and active than their classmates.

Such a violation of the sexual stereotype is not accidental and has deep roots in the peculiarities of our culture. The proclaimed orientation to the social equality of men and women leads to the fact that they are prepared for a very similar life path: regardless of gender, everyone needs to get education and work, the family for the woman only acts as an "additional" sphere of realization. At the same time, traditional views on gender relations are hierarchical in our society, therefore both the surrounding people and various circumstances( preferential admission of boys to higher educational institutions, to work, etc.) constantly remind us of the advantages of men. This situation stimulates the development of women's masculine qualities: competitiveness, aspiration for domination, overactivity.

Thus, sex-role socialization in its modern form leads to paradoxical results: boys are kind of being pushed for passivity or extra-social activity, girls, on the contrary, for hyperactivity and dominance. At the same time, they will have to live in a society that is largely oriented towards traditional sex-role standards.

We will briefly discuss the consequences of this contradiction in various spheres of life, namely, in the family and professional activities.

The beginning of the formation of any family is the process of courtship. In our culture it develops quite traditionally - a man is active, expresses his feelings, tries to win attention;a woman is relatively passive and feminine. Since the traditional form of courtship is one of the few manifestations of the double standard, directly "beneficial" to a woman, it is relatively easy for her to adopt a dependent position. After marriage, the distribution of roles and responsibilities in the family also begins to form quite traditionally: the wife, striving to be "good" and as feminine as she does during courtship, takes on most of the responsibilities.

However, in this situation, the traditional double standard is uncomfortable. Unequal participation in family affairs( especially noticeable in connection with the assimilated idea of ​​gender equality and truly equal involvement in professional activities) ceases to suit a woman quite quickly. And although this distribution of roles to the husband is objectively beneficial( leaves more time and more freedom), but at the same time it once again emphasizes the activity of the position of the woman and the passivity of the position of the man, which can cause psychological discomfort for him.

This situation is further aggravated when the firstborn is born in the family. Studies, both Soviet and foreign, show that after that the satisfaction with marriage of spouses begins to decrease, since the birth of the child leads to a significant traditionalization of the positions of both spouses when the wife performs purely female affairs and duties related to the family and the house, and the husband -Male, connected primarily with work. While the child is very small, this division of responsibilities is relatively justified in the eyes of both spouses. Reduction in satisfaction with marriage reaches a maximum by the time when the child turns 3-4 years old and care for him, even from the point of view of ordinary consciousness, does not require any special feminine qualities. During this period, leave to care for the child ends and the woman is under double load: regardless of her desire she is forced to go to work and at the same time continues to perform the vast majority of household chores. Naturally, this situation does not suit women, moreover, going out to work strengthens their masculine orientations, which also contributes to the growth of activity and the need to change the family situation.

In fact, the only way to solve this problem is the active involvement of the husband in the affairs of the family. But such a drastic change in his position is very difficult due to a number of factors of the previous socialization, which did not prepare the boy for active participation in family affairs, the distribution of roles and responsibilities already established in the family, whose inertia is difficult to overcome, and, finally, the social situation as a whole,where work( and above all the work of men) is more valued, and therefore, to give up its "social position", it is difficult to reorient the family to a man. It is no coincidence, as the advisory practice shows, the more common was another option: the husband, being saved from the pressure of his wife, becomes more and more absorbed in the state of passivity, the wife becomes more demanding and directive. As a result, an active wife and a passive husband are next to the family, which, naturally, in the situation of the orientation of the majority of women and men to traditional patterns of behavior does not contribute to the growth of family well-being.

Turning to the analysis of the manifestations of the sex-role characteristics of a person in professional activity, it is important to remember that the nature of work, and consequently, the quality of the employee is largely determined by the economic and social characteristics of society. In this connection, data on the differences in the qualities required for a market worker and a directively centralized economy are of interest in the first case. This is primarily an orientation to individual responsibility, activity, initiative, rationalism, etc., and in the second, to collective responsibility,instrumental attitude to work, conservatism, etc. It is no exaggeration to say that such an opposition is surprisingly reminiscent of the dichotomy of the male and female principles. This situation leads to a paradoxicalIt turns out to be difficult to demonstrate the masculine features in a traditionally male field, such as work, under the conditions of a directively centralized economy, which naturally reduces the motivation of activity and satisfaction with it, and also contributes to a further withdrawal from social activity. It would seem that in these situations women are in a better position. But is it?

Traditionalism and the "double standard" effects that are characteristic of our society have already been mentioned above.

Undoubtedly, the influence of these factors on women's professional activity is quite large, if only because the overwhelming majority of the managers are men, and this is despite the fact that 51.4% of workers in our country are women. But there are several curious moments related to the work of women in our country, which I would like to say about.

According to many foreign authors, the quality of female workers should be a continuation of traditional feminine characteristics. There is evidence that women are most attracted to the work of helping people. Thus, in analyzing the main preferences of working women in the US, it turned out that in their profession they are trying to continue typical family activities - parenting( pedagogy), caring for others( medicine), helping the husband( secretarial work), cooking( cooking)and manifest themselves in labor in traditional femin roles - mother, wife, mistress. In addition, if men are more focused on social activity and more dynamic, women prefer cabinet, chamber, not very dynamic work.

Looking at this list, we can not but pay attention to the fact that the accent of the prestige of professions in our country is arranged in such a way that all the allocated professions are, on the one hand, unprestigious, and on the other hand low-paid( especially in the professions associated with servicing).Thus, the current situation obviously deprives feminine women of the possibility of high job satisfaction.

There is one more important factor that undoubtedly influences the attitude of women towards their work. Thus, the data obtained by a number of authors show that women who are forced to work to support themselves and their families are much less satisfied with their professional activities than their colleagues engaged in similar work, receiving the same or even lower wages, but working exclusivelyat their own will( the financial situation of the family allows them not to work at all).In addition, if a woman can not work, but is engaged in professional activities, as this "enhances her emotional background and self-esteem", she is more successful and effective.

What are the motives for women's work in our society? According to some reports, 40% of the women surveyed work only for the sake of children. The second most popular motive of labor is the desire to be in the team and only the third is the interest in the content of professional activity.

Thus, the labor market in our country practically does not represent an opportunity for the realization of either a man or a woman of gender identity, targeting those engaged in manufacturing people for some average asexual worker type.

In this article we have considered only two examples of the negative impact of the existing practice of gender socialization on the self-realization of the individual in our culture. Undoubtedly, their number can be multiplied. However, it seems to us that this far from complete list shows the urgent need to "rehabilitate" the category of sex both in practical recommendations of psychologists and actually in research, because the cultural specifics in this area are large enough to deprive us of the opportunity to directly appeal to foreigndata.