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All Russian nouns are referred to the masculine, feminine or neuter genders; person nouns — due to
the natural sex distinctions of creatures they express, non-person nouns — because of the form of the
noun ending in -a, a consonant, -o, -e, etc.
There are nouns of the common gender in the Russian language, such as брюзга, задира, невежа,
недотрога, ровня, etc. There are also nouns of the masculine gender which are widely used to denote
both males and females: судья Иванова, врач Петрова, доктор, доцент, педагог, профессор, мастер,
etc. Some of them have the corresponding feminine noun: профессорша, докторша, врачиха, but they
are used to denote the wife of the person of the profession or are used in the colloquial style.
Russian adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs in the past tense agree with the noun in gender.
M М
ж ж ж
Он купил своей второй маме цветы.
ж ж м м
Она застала своего брата в библиотеке.
English adjectives do not change to show gender, possessive pronouns, however, must show the sex of
the person they stand for, never the gender of the noun they modify.
m f
Ralph brought his mother some roses ("his" refers in gender to Ralph not to "mother").
f m
Lucy found her brother in the library ("her" refers in gender to Lucy, not to "brother").
To bring in the topic of gender into the classroom arrange a talk about boys and girls. Show pictures or
bring samples of toys. For whom are these toys designed?
Discuss basic differences between boys and girls. Are these differences something we are born with or
are they bred by society?
How do your mum and dad and your school treat the two sexes? Do you like the treatment?
Do boys and girls differ in their perception of the world? How do boys and girls treat each other?
Write adjectives on the board and ask the class to use them describing the classmates or their photos
(in which case there'll be more interest). You may also ask the students to think of adjectives you
associate with boys, girls or both. These can be: quiet, thoughtful, noisy, ambitious, gentle, kind, cruel,
fast, sympathetic, clever, strong, nice, talkative, better-behaved, hard-working, etc.
Discuss recommendations to the teacher on how to get on with boys and with girls and how to counter
sexism in the classroom.