GENDER REGIMES OF RUSSIAN WORKING-CLASS FAMILIES

Abstract

Purpose of the study: The study is aimed to examine working-class everyday culture gender regimes in modern Russia. The research is focused on intergenerational transmission of gender-normative patterns, macro-policy of power and domination in working-class families, forms of their discursive production and legitimation. Methodology: The empirical base is represented by 30 biographical interviews with the informants aged from 21 to 33, living in Tyumen city and working in the field of industry, technical maintenance, and customer service. Reflexive analysis based on the categorical field of phenomenology and social constructionism, as well as data coding procedures, has been used as the main research tool. Main Findings: It was found that the normative pattern of a male breadwinner, having power in a family-based on control over economic resources, still dominates among young working-class men and actively supported by the majority of young women. The financial and status dominance of a man does not cause doubts in his leadership but when a woman plays a crucial role in providing for the family, informants tend to talk about “equality” in the family. Applications of this study: The results of the study can be used in the teaching of sociology, gender studies, and cultural studies; it can also be applied by local policymakers while developing social policy programs targeted on the regarded social group. Novelty/Originality of this study: In the current research we have examined a particular social group at the intersection of three stratification features: social class, gender, and age. The approach of “agency within the structure” provides an opportunity to carry out a deep sociological analysis of the relations between the macro-social and personal aspects of the gender regimes framing.