The urgency of the problem of gender self-determination is caused by necessity of development of a person as a subject and an object of the public attitudes. Child's biological and civil gender is defined already in the prenatal period and after his birth. On the basis of it the education of the child is carried out in society.
What is gender self-determination? Firstly let's consider concepts "gender" and "self-determination" separately, and then we can find out interrelation between them.
Gender is social and psychological sex of a person, the set of his or her psychological characteristics and features of social behaviour shown in dialogue and interaction. Base formation in gender is the psychological sex of the person, i.e. achievement of the certain level of sexual self-consciousness and sexual identification, real acquiring a male or female role.
The self-determination of the person is an ability to find own place in the world, to understand own opportunities, to realize the purpose in life, in selected sphere of public and labour activity, in personal life and career, aspiration to change the society positively. The self-determination of the person is a conscious act of revealing and statement of an own position in problem situations.
The gender self-determination is a process of comprehension itself as a representative of this or that sex, understanding of own opportunities in a male or female role, finding own place in male and female society, in family, in selected sphere of public and labour activity, in personal life and career.
In concept of gender self-determination there are four components which make its substantial nucleus: motives and aspirations to an ideal image of the man/woman ("I want to be"); the self-knowledge as comprehension of the qualities of masculinity/femininity, understanding own real "I" as a representative of a concrete sex ("I am"); a self-rating ("I can"); the requirements of a society, public norms of life, male and female stereotypes ("require"). It is important, that the ideal image of a man or a woman should combine vital and cultural values produced by the mankind during centuries.
The gender self-determination is learning an ideal image and transferring it in the internal plan of actions. However ideal of masculinity and femininity in comprehension of modern youth does not coincide with traditional. It derivates a number of problems, which are reflected both in a status of family, and in conditions in a society. Active feminizing of men and masculinizing of women takes place no less than "civil marriages, divorces, decrease of birth rate, increase of quantity of people with nonconventional sexual orientation and distribution of cohabitation, growth of sexual criminality, suicides.