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Maximova O.B. [Gender roles and gender stereotypes as sociocultural categories: representational implication] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 2. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/08SCSK221.pdf (in Russian).

Gender roles and gender stereotypes as sociocultural categories: representational implication

Maximova Olga Borisovna
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, Russia
E-mail: maximova-ob@rudn.ru

Abstract. The article deals with the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the differentiation of gender roles and gender relations in the society, its biological and social interpretation. The author examines how the processes of gender socialization and gender identification are analyzed from the standpoint of the leading social theories of the 20th century (structural functionalism, dramatic interactionism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, social constructivism, feminism), identifies and compares two main approaches to the nature of differences between men and women: essentialist and constructivist. Emphasizing the pluralism and dynamism of modern approaches to gender roles in contemporary sociology, the author comes to the conclusion that the classical thinking is being replaced with the modern and the postmodern ones. In this regard, the most correct approach seems to be based on the theory of social construction of gender, within which the construction of gender identity is carried out due to gender technologies through the politics of representation. This approach can be a useful tool for analyzing micro and macro levels of social reality and their interactions. The author concludes that, despite the fact that gender relations vary around the world depending on a specific cultural pattern, it is common for all existing societies that generally accepted gender relations are not biologically determined, are not set by nature, but are determined and are constructed socially. In modern society, gender is defined in terms of cultural variables rather than through biology or nature. Men and women are two main social types, their interaction is of a pronounced social character.

Keywords: gender roles; cultural patterns; gender differences; gender stereotypes; gender relations; theory of social construction of gender; representation; gender socialization; multiple identity

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