GENDER AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY OF AN INDIVIDUAL: INTERCONNECTION AND INTERINFLUENCE

Abstract

The article highlights the scope of relationship and interinfluence of gender and professional identity, substantiates the relevance of research on this issue in order to increase the adaptability of individuals, their development, promote effective professional activities, enhance productive collaboration of people of different genders for society as a whole. The scientific viewpoints on the definition of professional identity, the separation of its main components and factors influencing its formation, the conditions of identification of a person as a professional are analyzed and generalized. The concept of gender identity and its structure are also conveyed. It was elucidated that individual and psychophysiological features of development constitute grounds, while biological characteristics are only supplemented by psychological sex. Based on the studied theoretical material, it is concluded that gender and professional identities, as components of social identity, display similar components (cognitive, affective, conative), and significantly affect the formation and development of a personality. This made it possible to assert that these types of personal identities are interconnected and able to influence each other in the course of a person’s life. It has been empirically determined that the type of professional identity formation in second and fourth year students differs significantly in general and in gender, in particular: for second year students the characteristic type of professional identity is “diffuse identity” (40 %), for fourth year students – “achieved identity” (33 %). However, coincidently a significant part of fourth-year economics students has the status of a professional identity “moratorium” (30 %). The hypothesis is advanced that the formation and development of gender identity and the change of factors that affect it progresses differently in the representatives of different sexes. As a research perspective, it is proposed to conduct a more detailed theoretical and empirical study of the main components of gender and professional identity and to develop educational and training programs for the development of professional identity of the individual, taking into account the gender aspect.