Family as an object in the formation of a new gender order

Abstract

The article presents the main characteristics inherent in the Russian family as a small social group in line with a new gender order. In the 21st century one may see the new traits, characteristics and functions of the gender and gender relations, which is reflected in the emergence of a new gender order, which sociologists and feminologists have started talking about. The concept of a gender order is briefly defined and a historical retrospective of its emergence is given. The author marks three main subjects in which the changes taking place in the Russian family in recent decades are analyzed. First of all, it is the variability of family scenarios, which consists in different gender compositions of families (if we take the example of a country with officially permitted homosexual marriages); in matters of the childbirth, divorce, housekeeping practices, etc. Secondly, it is a change in gender roles, which is manifested in the growth of economic activity of women, their growing financial independence within the family, with the simultaneous transfer of the household responsibilities to a man. That plot leads to a third feature: changes in the family lifestyle what is most clearly evidenced by the strengthened educational function of the father. The family simultaneously reflects changes in a gender order and generates them, which speaks in favor of the relevance of the topic being studied.