NAS Institute of Sociology: Belarusians are shedding gender stereotypes

“One of the areas for the 2021-2025 National Gender Equality Action Plan is uncovering gender stereotypes when it comes to familial and professional standing of men and women in the Belarusian society, and facilitating shared parental and professional responsibilities,” explained Alesya Solovey, a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology. She added that their representative sample included 1,850 respondents with the maximum tolerance level of 2.28 percent and α = 0.05.

The results show that 56.2 percent of Belarusians (52.8 percent of men and 58.8 percent of women) agree with the statement that ‘women have harder time combining family and work, compared to men’. One in every three (31.8 percent) disagrees with that. The opinion that ‘every woman must choose between career and family’ splits the audience almost exactly in half, with 40.2 percent agreeing and 43.1 percent disagreeing.

Nearly half of Belarusians (46.6 percent: 42.9 percent of men and 49.4 percent of women) believe that ‘marriage is not a career obstacle for women’. Just a third of that number (10.5 percent) subscribe to the opinion that ‘marriage is a career obstacle for men’. The majority (75 percent, including 76.8 percent of men and 72.7 percent of women) believe the opposite.

“Identifying how susceptible to stereotypes people are when it comes to combining [male and female] social roles facilitates government gender policies in various areas of life. The monitoring data show a positive trend: little by little, we are shedding stereotypes in favour of more modern concepts of male and female rights and capabilities,” concluded Ms. Solovey.