Gender Studies in Azerbaijan in the Context of Epistemological Westernization

The article presents an attempt to outline the development of women's and gender studies in Azerbaijan in the context of the formation of interdisciplinarity in the social sciences and humanities and to identifY their methodological significance for historical knowledge. It is especially noted that gender studies as a scientific direction were embedded in the general context of epistemological "Westernization". Gender studies in Azerbaijan practically begun in the second half of the 1990s. It should be admitted that, as in many other post-Soviet republics, the aforementioned studies, as well as the study of gender policy, gender education, did not arise spontaneously, being dictated by the internal needs of society and science, but were exported as an integral part of the "big political project". It is noted that since 1990, the Department ofProblems of Modern Philosophy of the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan has been engaged in theoretical analysis and practical application of gender studies. The research interests ofAzerbaijani scientists include the study ofsuch issues as gender aspects of socio-economic development, gender quotas and stereotypes, gender factor in politics, features ofstate policy on women, empowerment of women, etc. Such unfavorable factors as the absence of the feminist movement as a social base for such investigations, the dominance ofpatriarchal attitudes and the embryonic state offeminist reaction, as well as the tendency of "modernization ofpatriarchal consciousness" and others are mentioned as adverse social reasons. At the end of the article, separate tasks are formulated that face the nascent gender history ofAzerbaijan.