Conceptual Approaches to Researching Women’s Economic Security

The article studies genesis of the theory of women’s economic security. Women’s economic security was analyzed in the light of interaction of four groups of factors, such as economic, social and personality, crisis and institutional. The research integrates international and Russian problems dealing with provision of economic security of women. Based on data of international organizations (the UN, the International Labour Organization, the World Bank, etc.) and Russian statistics the authors identified specific features of the current standing of women’s economic security in Russia and in the world: restrictions in access to highly-paid jobs, higher unemployment rate and risk of losing job, stable gender gap in remuneration, lower income and saving rate, high load in the field of unpaid care, vulnerability to finance fraud, employment in illegal and informal sectors of economy, etc. Evolution of approaches to providing economic security of women was studied, which leads to synthesis of the paternalist model and the model of active subjectivity, when person acts as a key agent of his/her economic security. Special attention was paid to legal regulation on national level and the role of international organizations in upgrading women’s economic security.