Assessment of Personal Freedom and Responsibility by Female Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Safety Culture

Abstract

Drawing on the outcome of field research conducted among female students at the St. Petersburg University, the article examines the relationship between values of personal freedom and those of responsibility under the conditions of the pandemic. I argue that this relationship is tied to the formation of a safety culture and that these values are significant for young women, but their assessment and impact on the personal situation during the pandemic is experienced ambiguously. Almost a third of the young women interviewed experienced negative feelings caused by the restriction of freedom. I specifically address the main strategies that the interviewees referred to as helping them cope with the situation of restriction of freedom: compensation for the lack of inclusion in society; rapprochement with family; training and self-development; withdrawal from or denial of problems; increasing the comfort of life; etc. Most of the female students believe that their responsibility during the pandemic was somehow connected with the moral value of the rights of other people. At the same time, about a quarter of them indicated that the imposition and use of prohibitive norms by the state suppresses the moral responsibility of citizens rather than stimulates it. The existing favorable conditions for the development of a safety culture can be strengthened by establishing a balance between administrative and legal measures and respect for the moral components of freedom and responsibility