Stigmatisation of Women’s Participation in Politics
This article studies the stigmatisation of women in politics. The authors consider the processes of stigmatisation, claimed by social and political practice. In particular, the low level of political participation of women can be explained by stigmas that have firmly entered the public consciousness. The authors consider stigma as a symbolic form of the status of a person and any political subject in interaction. On the basis of the analysis of gender, gender, feminist theories, researchers point out that social inequality, which is fixed in the status - hierarchical division of society, in the contradictory nature of the interests and nature of social ties and relations, is objectively becoming a source of stigmatisation. The process of stigmatisation in politics has a number of stages: preparatory (analysis of the situation), initial (highlighting the object of attention and searching for stigmatization tools), the main one (the formation of prejudices, the lowering of status opportunities for the stigmatization object), and the finalisation (support solidarity and control). Stigmatisation in public policy can perform a number of functions, which include orienting (allowing to identify subjects of the political space), instrumental (stigmas as tools of suppression and punishment in tactics of interaction with rivals, opponents), and ordering (providing social control and order in society). The authors note that the stigmatisation of women’s formal political participation leads to the creation of effective informal channels of influence: the dissemination of rumours and the formation of public opinion, the promotion/hindrance of the political career of men; marriage, etc. Researchers point to the social consequences of stigmatisation, to which they refer the violation of the principles of social and political interaction (humanism, tolerance, justice, and mutual benefit) and the strengthening of deviance in the behavioural style of political subjects.