Demographic aging in the aspect of gender problems in modern Russia

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to identify the features of demographic aging in terms of gender problems in modern Russia. The most significant demographic transformation of the current century is the process of population aging. It is established that the distinctive characteristics of the demographic dynamics in our country are: changing age structure of the population against the background of low fertility connected with the second stage of depopulation in Russia; a significant lagging behind not only economically developed but also several developing countries in life expectancy for both women and men; prevailing demographic asymmetry by gender; low indicators of healthy life expectancy, which are calculated without taking into account the gender component; burden of age-related diseases accumulated by the age of 65. It is shown that in Russia the number of elderly and old women exceeds the number of their male coevals by more than 15 million. Social, technological, and demographic transformations impact the dynamics of social roles. The most important change is the growth of women in paid work throughout the world, including in Russia. And women of retirement age have a high risk of social isolation. For many Russian pensioners with low per capita income and no savings the main strategy is that of survival. So now the most topical problem is changing the stereotype of women’s old age, associated with such concepts as lack of development, untidy appearance of a person without gender and desires that causes physical rejection.