Conceptualisation of the gender component of a country’s economic security

Abstract

The article reviews different interpretations of the»economic security» concept in the context of their transformation under the influence of changes in socio-economic systems of different taxonomic levels, and identifies the position of gender security as its important component. The authors outline reasons for the actualization of gender issues, in particular, the features of the current stage of the world economic system’s development in the context of labour markets transformation, informatization and permanent introduction of innovations against the background of aggravated contradictions caused by structural transformations of socio-economic entities (both national and international ones), and migration flows. Contemporary gender studies have been reviewed, including those concerning the diversity and similarity of stereotypes that impede economic development and the achievement of gender equality; critical discourse on the subject of guaranteeing gender equality – equal opportunities for women and men or equality of performance; comparison of the impact of technological changes on the employment of men and women; identification of current trends in positioning women in the workplace and in leadership; features of gender policy within the EU’s educational and scientific domains; substantiation of women’s involvement in technical field of work in terms of business efficiency, etc.. On the basis of the analogy method, it is proposed to define gender equality as an objectively acceptable level (degree) of achieving and protecting the equality of men and women in the economic system of a certain taxonomic level from external and internal threats in the short term and / or providing the preconditions for achieving absolute equality in the predicted future. Six levels of gender security hierarchy are identified, namely: mega-level – global gender security; meta-level – international gender security (regional level, level of integrative entities) and transnational gender security (transnational and multinational corporations, transnational banks, etc.); macro level – gender security of the state; mesolevel – gender security of regions and sectors of economy; microlevel – gender security of the enterprise; nanolevel – gender security of the household, family and individual. A set of concepts within the framework of gender security has been developed, in particular the definition of global and international gender security, transnational gender security, gender security of the state and gender security of the individual are proposed. The authors suggest the approach to developing a set of systemized state and integration entities’ gender security indicators, which combines separate modified demographic and social security indicators, as well as the structural components of the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index, including the ratio of women and men to the mean income lower than 75 percent of the level of total income per capita; the ratio of employment rates of women and men aged 15-70, percentage of population of the relevant age group, etc. * This article was translated from its original in Ukrainian. 1 Tokar Volodymyr Volodymyrovych — Doctor of Economics, Professor, Professor at the Department of International Finance, Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, grant-holder of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2018). Sphere of scientific interests: international finance, state economic security, global financial security, inclusive economy, equal opportunities, gender issues. E-mail: tokarww@ukr.net. Wasilewska Natalia Stepanivna — Doctor of Economics, Professor at the Department of Economics and Management, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce (Poland). Sphere of scientific interests: analysis of corporate finance, assessment of creditworthiness of enterprises, evaluation of real estate as a subject of mortgage, mortgage relations, expert monetary valuation of agricultural land plots, assessment of integral property complexes, economic security, gender equality. E-mail: n.wasilewska@unipt.pl. IEP, No 30, (2019) pp. 112–130 © Volodymyr Tokar, Natalia Wasilewska, 2019 «All rights reserved» ISSN 1811-9832/2019/No 1 (30) VOLODYMYR TOKAR, NATALIA WASILEWSKA 113 CONCEPTUALISATION OF THE GENDER COMPONENT OF A COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC SECURITY