From the author: Psychology of maturity and aging. – 2006. – No. 4 (36). – pp. 25–31Professional segregation of modern women as a factor based on stereotypical perception of gender roles. The most difficult problem of modern society is the integration of women into development processes. The understanding that most “women’s problems” are not problems only of the female half of humanity, caused by the biological characteristics of the female population, takes modern social science to a new direction related to the concept of gender or “social sex.” A system of norms of behavior of individuals arises, prescribing their fulfillment of certain socio-sexual roles, a stable system of concepts is formed about what constitutes “female” occupations, professions, character traits, and what is “male”. Women and men are a priori imposed on certain roles, deviation from which is associated with social rejection. A number of barriers to the full realization of personality are formed, based on stereotypical perceptions of male and female roles. J. Plec defines gender role as social norms that contain instructions and prohibitions regarding what men and women should feel and do. For a woman, the traditional gender role includes the role of homemaker, wife, mother, and housewife. A woman is prescribed to remain in the private sphere of life - home, giving birth to children, and she is entrusted with responsibility for relationships in the family. The traditional gender role for a man includes professional roles - this is the role of a participant in public life, an excellent specialist in his field, and the breadwinner of the family. Thus, a woman must realize herself in the microenvironment (family, everyday life), and a man in the macroenvironment (work, politics, science). These stereotypes often do not have any objective justification, associated, for example, with the biological characteristics of the body of men and women, and are formed by social practice. The scale and sustainability of the impact of gender stereotypes on public consciousness leads to the formation of discriminatory phenomena against women and men in various spheres of human life. These phenomena are especially acutely reflected in the position of women, which can be seen in the analysis of the current situation. Full employment (including women’s ), an increase in the level of education (including among women) was associated with the emancipation of women, with the successful solution of women's problems and with the absence of barriers to the free realization of women's personality. The presence of negative phenomena in the political, economic and family spheres, if recognized, was interpreted in a completely different way. The main problem inherent to women was recognized as the problem of combining a woman’s professional and family functions. Incorrect premises in the analysis of the situation of women gave rise to incorrect results. Because of this, gender discrimination continued to exist (and still exists today). In particular, such phenomena as occupational segregation (overrepresentation of women in low-status jobs), the problem of “double working hours” for women have been preserved and reproduced throughout the entire foreseeable period of our state. The female labor force is concentrated today in low-paid sectors of the official labor market and in the least stable non-state sectors. Often women are faced with excessive demands, discrimination when hiring, during career advancement - all this prevents a woman from realizing herself as an individual. The reasons why women cannot compete equally with men in the labor market are ultimately based on socially constructed ideas about the gender division of labor. There is horizontal segregation, manifested in different occupational categories, when men and women are hired into different jobs or when women are pushed intolow-status professions in terms of pay and social prestige. Women are concentrated mainly in such sectors of the economy as social security (82.9%), education (79.7%), culture (73.6%) [2, p. 70]. The structure of a woman’s professional activity, in a certain sense, reproduces the system of social roles that has developed in society, when at the societal level women are assigned the types of occupations that they traditionally perform in the family. These sectors of the economy have traditionally been financed on a residual basis, which has a negative impact on wages. In such industries, the average wage of workers is 25–40% lower than the average wage in the national economy as a whole [4]. In a certain sense, this can be called occupational segregation - the concentration of one sex in professions that pay lower than others. According to S. Ashwin, work is very important for women's sense of identification. It gives them a sense of their own relevance, significance, need and social usefulness, serving as a source of communication and support, even when the work itself is unpleasant and brings little satisfaction [1, p. 65].Despite their higher educational level, women have lower self-esteem of their labor capabilities and confidence in their value in the labor market, and a stronger feeling of their lack of competitiveness. In addition, women bear the entire burden of housekeeping (80% of all housework today is done by women), which significantly reduces their activity outside the home. Household factors tend to be the main reason for women's low competitiveness in the labor market. Housework, as a rule, is not paid and is not considered “real work.” In modern society, a woman really faces a choice: family or work. The predominance of one or another life dominant (career or family) is not always the result of a conscious preference. In most cases, this dominant is forced and is accompanied by psychological discomfort. Being immersed in a “career” is accompanied by a feeling of loneliness, lack of perspective in your personal life, and faces the silent disapproval of public opinion. Women who are closed to the family are also not always happy: they are deprived of variety in communication, suffer from incomplete social self-realization, underestimation of their personal beginnings on the part of other family members, and from complete material dependence. However, combining the roles of a housewife and a good employee is extremely difficult. Thus, a woman who has demonstrated her abilities and wants to realize her potential often comes into conflict with the traditional views of others about a woman’s place in society and, possibly, into a conflict with her own ideas about herself as an individual. It is not surprising that some women experience stress or role conflict while trying to be a good mother, a good housewife and a good employee at the same time. Overload at work and at home forms the so-called “professional burnout syndrome” [5, p. 49] - depletion of moral and physical strength, which inevitably affects both the effectiveness of women’s professional activities, their psychological well-being, and family relationships. Traditional gender roles hinder the development of personality and the realization of existing potential, and act as a barrier to the development of individuality [6]. Following gender roles is often associated with the mechanisms of obligation. According to K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, self-realization and self-expression is impossible if activities are performed based on a sense of duty. In such a situation, personal interests are not taken into account, the sense of “I” is lost, submission and dependence are formed. Such a sense of self and self-perception does not correspond to the ideas of self-realization and free choice. In our opinion, it is possible to outline ways to solve emerging problems and difficulties for women that will contribute to their greater adaptation in the current modern conditions. One of them is related to overcoming the “syndromeprofessional burnout”, relieving psychological stress, promoting a woman’s personal growth. The most realistic and effective today is the creation of support groups aimed at psychological relief and permanent restoration of moral and mental strength. In support groups, women try to learn to value themselves again, to more accurately understand what they really want, i.e. learning new models of behavior and thinking occurs. A creative process of self-growth occurs, which has a positive effect on a woman’s mental health, helps overcome “professional burnout syndrome,” and also leads to a productive interaction between a woman’s professional and family roles. In our opinion, the education system should play a special role in this. The traditional education system takes little into account the duality of roles that awaits a woman in the process of life and social maturation. Therefore, not all women manage to cope with real contradictions. Many of them do not realize the deep motives of their failures in their personal or professional lives; they often associate them with the course of circumstances, by chance, or come to low self-esteem. In fact, the situation is largely objective in nature, rooted in the mutual unpreparedness of both women and society for a harmonious combination of gender roles. But following traditional gender roles also has a negative impact on men. The components of the traditional male role include norms of success/status, mental, physical and emotional toughness, and anti-femininity [3]. For many men, full compliance with these standards is unattainable, which causes stress and leads to compensatory reactions: limitation of emotionality, obsessive desire for competition and success, etc. A study was conducted to identify the influence of gender roles on personality. Based on the results obtained, the following conclusions can be formulated. Men who adhere to traditional gender roles are less susceptible to depression than women, more prone to repression, regression and denial of difficulties, they have a predominant type of defense such as “reinterpretative activity” (they resort to such defense mechanisms as rationalization, intellectualization), a more pronounced fixation on psychotrauma than in women. This indicates that affect and intellect are “stuck” on mental trauma. Women who adhere to traditional gender roles are more concerned about their health than men. Women who adhere to the opposite of traditional gender roles (masculine) have higher scores on all scales compared to men. They are more depressed than men and also more aggressive. They are more prone to repression, regression and denial, “reinterpretative activity” is more pronounced than men, fixation on psychotrauma also predominates, and, finally, such women are more concerned about their health than men. It was also found that women and men who adhere to egalitarian gender roles (androgynous) are more adapted to life in the social environment, including family relationships. They are more flexible in relationships compared to women and men who adhere to traditional gender roles. The positive potential of this phenomenon lies in achieving the psychological integrity of the individual, which entails social stability and success. Being androgynous, a person is aware of the fact of gender asymmetry, which includes leveling out discrimination at different levels. Ultimately, it is difficult to overestimate the value of androgyny for the health and development potential of the individual and society. For full development and self-realization, a person needs to get rid of the restrictions imposed by the traditional stereotype of thinking on the behavior of men and women, and which represent only a convention. Freedom from such stereotypes (and in fact, prejudices) gives a person the opportunity to find spiritual and. 188 – 202.