Women’s Press: Theory and Research Experience in Ukraine and Russia
Authors: Smeyukha Victoriya , Grebennikova Natalya 
Published: August 2016

The main objectives of this research are: to summarize the studies in women’s press carried out by Ukrainian and Russian scientists in the late XX and early XXI centuries; to identify the main trends in research on this issue; to identify the common and different trends in Ukrainian and Russian studies; to define the ground for strengthening research interest to a segment of women’s press. The source base for this study consists of the Ukrainian and Russian dissertations, monographs and research articles.

Methods. For this study the authors used the following methods: bibliographic; methods of comparison and classification; theoretical-typological and historical-typological methods; secondary analysis of data derived from other studies.

Within the bibliographic review we analysed the academic works by Ukrainian and Russian scientists, who explored the women’s press. With that, the main focus was on those scientific works, which significantly contributed to the studies in women’s press or strongly indicated the formation of new trends in the relevant research process. The following electronic resources were used as the main source to find academic publications devoted to the women’s press: “Elibrary.ru”, “Man and Science – Library of Dissertations on Humanitarian Sciences”, “Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine”.

The scientific papers devoted to the studies in women’s press were classified in accordance with the issues they mainly focused on. The papers were presented in chronological order, within the corresponding thematic areas.

Comparison and classification methods were used to identify the similar and different trends in development of the studies in women’s press in Ukrainian and Russian science. Theoretical-typological method made it possible to correlate the research results with the typological conceptions of women’s periodicals. Historical-typological method was used to show the role of contemporary studies in the history of women’s press.

Results and Conclusions. A bibliographic review of Ukrainian and Russian academic works dedicated to women’s press was performed. The authors analyzed research papers of the late XX and early XXI cent.; identified the main trends in research on this issue; found common and different trends in Ukrainian and Russian studies; defined the ground for strengthening research interest to a segment of women’s press.

At present, the women’s press is a subject of many humanities studies in Ukraine and Russia; women’s periodicals are studied by philologists, historians, sociologists, in cultural studies. The strengthening of research interest to the field of women’s periodicals in Ukraine and Russia was mainly stimulated by the following factors: the developments in socio-political situation that influenced the system of media as a whole; and the expansion of women’s press segment, strengthening of its economic significance and of its impact on the audience.

Some similar trends are observed in the development of women’s press in two countries that stipulates the similar trends in research on this subject. Scientists of the both countries mostly conduct the theoretical-typological, historical-typological, philological, gender, linguistic and sociological analysis of the women’s periodicals. Developments in the segment of women’s press and changes in its impact on the audience define the key areas of research process. During the first decade of the XXI century, scientists focused their studies on the typological transformation of the system of women’s press and on the developed of classification of the women’s periodicals. Later, the main interest refocused on the impact of women’s press on mental, behavioral and communication characteristics of the audience.

The Ukrainian scientists perform better in the scientific theory of women’s press, because their studies are based not only on own theoretical experience, but also take into account the results of Russian colleagues, contributing to the breadth and quality of research, and making it possible to pay more attention to the new areas of research. At the same time, the majority of Russian scientists use in their research on women’s presses a narrower set of academic sources that leads to the certain uniformity and similarity of the results.

The generalizations and conclusions of the current research can supplement the theoretical knowledge in the field of women’s press, facilitate tracing the dynamics of research interest on the corresponding subject in Ukraine and Russia, and contribute to the determination of the prospective areas of studies in women’s press.