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Соціальна педагогіка: теорія та практика № 3, 2011
and man’s work. The main explanations, why women get smaller salaries, are the
following: the majority of professions is divided into male and female and according
to the facts, female professions are paid less; there is an assumption that a woman
expects to get a smaller salary than a man, even if she has all required qualities,
skills, abilities and qualifications. The evident fact is that women occupy fewer
leading roles and lower positions, than men [5].
The situation has begun to change gradually only recently. If we take a look at
the gender statistics in Ukraine, we will see the following results: the quantity of
men and women-government employees are 36,5% and 63,5% correspondingly
(however, women gain such score only because they occupy lower positions); the
quantity of the candidates of sciences – women 38,4%, men – 61,6%; PhDs. –
women – 17,1%, men – 82,9%. The situation is not disastrous, but the difference
between two genders and their acceptance in the society is obvious. The results
of social survey about gender stereotypes in the Ukrainian society show the real
picture. Here is what people answered when they were asked «Who do you prefer
a woman or a man as…»: the president – women – 19%, men – 47%; the head of
the parliament – women – 9%, men – 44%; the director of the company – women
– 15%, men – 33% [12].
This statistic and different researches prove that women and men have a lot
of differences. The understanding and acceptance of the fact that your beloved
half can’t be the same as you, neither physically, nor in other aspects, will help to
create the family on spiritual and moral basis, where peace and quiet will reign. «I
want to be loved and to be understood – in fact these are the same things», – said
a British novelist Elizabeth Von Arnim [11]. And really, what can be better than
when people around you, especially your family, understand you?
A Russian scientist E. Ilyin is convinced that conflicts in a family arise, because
a woman and a man do not understand the physical peculiarities, emotional state
and behaviour of their beloved half. That’s the cause of misunderstandings, because
marriage and family expectations do not meet the reality [1].
It has to be said that gender differences, or it would be better to call them
gender peculiarities, should never limit social roles of a woman or a man. They
should complete each other, as two halves of one piece. If a woman can do the
job, which the society considers to be the men’s one, then why not? And vice
versa, if a man can deal with household duties, like cooking or cleaning, then let
him have such a possibility. The most important thing is the harmony, the balance,
the peace in the family, when a man and a woman share the responsibilities not
according to the existing stereotypes, but according to their own desires, mutual
understanding and agreement. The knowledge of gender peculiarities will help to
understand your beloved half.
Special courses or lectures, where specialists explain all crucial and urgent
problems and questions should be included in the process of preparing student
youth to becoming future wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, who will be
able to bring up a child with taking into account gender and individual peculiarities.
A Ukrainian scientist O. Plakhotnik (associate professor in National Aerospace
University – Kharkiv Aviation Institute) writes upon this question. According to her
researches, there are some courses of studies on gender problems, such as:
«Sociology of the family» (Ukrainian State Academy of Railway Transport),