The Development of gender studies in the World and in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The large-scale development of gender research in the world took place in the 1960s. These studies in the post-Soviet space made serious changes in the world view, philosophy and social knowledge, which experienced a deep crisis after the collapse of the Marxist-Leninist methodology. In philosophy, a new era of postmodernism began, in which gender studies, along with synergy,  ecology,    a culture of peace and other non-classical directions, laid the foundations for the newest directions of knowledge. The development of the «second nature» - culture until today permanently carries out the process of segregation of women and men, establishing temporary norms of their behavior, consolidating certain values, in general worldviews of the two sexes, which differ significantly from each other, sometimes reaching a polar opposite. In this regard, gender relationships and roles often fit into the pattern of binary opposition, widely represented in historical types of knowledge, in different social and humanitarian sciences. In this context, it is possible to imagine an initial, somewhat simplified definition of gender,  which should be understood as the scientific and philosophical direction of research into the totality and characteristics of the behaviour, roles and values of men and women in each particular society. he paper attempts to reconstruct the nodal moments of history, theory, methodology and practice of gender philosophy development in the world and Azerbaijan. The method of research in the article is selected historical and philosophical analysis. The scientific novelty consists in reconstruction of the stages of transformation of world feminism into gender research, summing up the results of the first stage of gender research development in Azerbaijan and determining the essential features of its second stage. The author believes that the first phase, which was educational and feminist, has now been completed. On the basis of the analysis undertaken, it is stated that the forthcoming second stage in Azerbaijan will involve a shift to a gender approach and a study of men ‘s issues, with a view to determining the necessary procedures for the establishment of true gender equality.