Theoretical and practical consequences of imbalance in the coefficient of male and female population in modern Russia: impact of the factor of ratio of genders in the region upon individual level of financial wellbeing

Abstract

This article presents a brief overview of the modern concept of gender selection and theory of parental investments, according to which the ration of genders in society manifests as a key forecaster of the level of polygyny on the marital market. The theory predicts that in shifting of the models of marital behavior from monogamous and polygamous, the level of matrimonial investment can decrease. The authors suggest that such targeted decrease of resources in the regions with low coefficient of genders can exert negative impact on the economic parameters of household in these regions. This research provides quantitative assessment of subjective satisfaction with financial position of the members of households in populated areas (N=10385) with various levels of coefficient of genders. The statistical analysis was conducted using the IBM SPSS software with application of the following methods: Pearson's χ2 criterion, Goodman and Kruskal's gamma (γ) criterion, and dispersion analysis. The acquired results confirm the presence of positive interconnection between the level of coefficient of genders in the region and financial wellbeing households. It was determined that in the regions of the Russian Federation with equal ration of male and female population, as well as in regions with predominant male population, the subjective assessment of own financial wellbeing was higher among both, men and women. The factor of sustained imbalance in the ratio of genders represents one of the relevant questions of Russian demography, but this phenomenon is rarely taken into consideration in quantitative research within social sciences.