Lifelong learning in Russia as a mechanism for the reproduction of human potential: gender aspect

The article presents a study of the peculiarities of the involvement of Russian men and women in lifelong learning. The analysis of both Russian and foreign studies allowed putting forward the hypothesis that women and men may have different approaches to the construction of a lifelong learning educational path. The purpose of this study is to assess the parameters of women’s and men’s involvement in lifelong learning, including the goals and sources of funding, in order to identify similarities and gender asymmetry of lifelong learning path in Russia. The data of the sample survey of population involvement in lifelong learning, conducted by Rosstat in 2020, show that women and men’s age profiles are similar, but their levels of involvement in different types of lifelong learning are not the same: men participate more actively in non-formal education, and women - in self-education. The current segregation of additional studies for qualification and field generally reflects the existing sectoral and occupational segregation in employment. At the same time, both women and men rarely associate their additional training with the expanded career opportunities, which may indicate the absence of a full-fledged system of vertical professional mobility based on the human potential growth. Our calculations show that employers more often invite men than women to take additional education and, accordingly, women more often than men pay for it themselves. Women with young children experience particular difficulties in participating in non-formal education and more often than others have to pay for themselves. This, in our view, contributes to the formation of gender inequality of opportunities for participation in lifelong learning, which makes it important to consider the gender factor in state programs of lifelong learning development in order to maximize its contribution to the human potential reproduction.