“Gender and Power”: Reading Raewyn Connell in Russia

Abstract

Raewyn Connell’s book Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics, published by the New Literary Observer Publishing House in Russian, presents a theory and the methodology of structural constructivist perspective for gender studies. Connell examines gender as a social structure that forms models of masculinity and femininity. The concept of the structure fixes constraints and limits of social organization (social institutions) that reflects “the rigidity of the social world.” At the same time, the structure may be a subject of purposeful practice. The mutual dynamics of the structure and practice determines the fundamental characteristic of gender relations, that of their historicity. The power structure seeks to provide a high degree of regulating the gender order. At the same time, numerous conflicts over gender and sexuality, formed social groups, and resistance movements have developed in the space of the practices. In discussing feminist ideas and theories, Connell raises the question of the involvement of the people involved in the transformation projects of gender relations based on equality criterion. One of Connell’s key ideas is “to understand the game of social forces in which gender plays a leading role,” cutting off any attempt to find a single or universal explanation. This approach has created prospects for Comparative Studies, which is able to describe and explain the forms of organization of gender relations in different cultures and societies. This conception sheds light on the exceptional importance of the role of gender in the “game of social forces” that determines the course and direction of social transformation in modern Russia.