Authors : A. Burilkina Svetlana, V. Oleynik Elena, G. Suprun Nellie, A. Bezenkova Tatyana and Yu. Andrusyak Natalya
Abstract: The study presents an overview of sociological studies on the subject of life values of women in single-industry towns of Russia. The specificity of social environment of a one industry town conditions the development of personal identity and value system of women. The primery influence determining daily life activities is the system of priorities shaped by day-to-day routine. The latter include, first and foremost, family well-being, health, children and material security. These are universal, closely-related human values which should be regarded as top level priorities and, consequently, as the terminal integrating core of women's basic values. The list of intermediate level priorities includes an interesting job, physical fitness and a successful carear. The town-forming enterprise, as the principal employer in a single-industry town, guides the lives of its citizens and conditions labour mobility. A woman's professional activity derives primerily from the need to ensure the family's welfare stays safely above the bare subsistence level. As far as employment, career development, standard wage rates and, by extension, the prospects of property acquisition are concerned, the position of women in a single-industry town is rather vulnerable. Women, taken as a specific group within a society, could not be regarded as a homogenous set due to the difference of age, state of health, class destinctions and characteristic individual psychological traits. Each sub-set within the larger group possesses their own life values and priority needs and consequently, the means of meeting them. Young women tend to place specific value on obtaining a good degree and getting a prestigious job. On the other hand, women of working age often face the problem of having to strike the right balance between their family commitments and job responsibilities. Women of a more mature age are primerily concerned about the problem of mainating material security as they advance in years.
A. Burilkina Svetlana, V. Oleynik Elena, G. Suprun Nellie, A. Bezenkova Tatyana and Yu. Andrusyak Natalya, 2016. Life Values of Today's Women in Single-industry Towns of Russia (Adapted from Sociological Studies Done in Magnitogorsk). The Social Sciences, 11: 4059-4063.