GENDER CHARACTERISTICS OF INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP EXPLICITY IN STUDENTS O.B. Mikhailova, E.A. Kaminskaya Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Chair of social and differential psychology Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10/2, Moscow, 117198, Russia The paper presents the theoretical and empirical analysis of gender studies devoted to the innovative behavior component. <...> The theoretical research on innovative behavior considers its separate aspects: the specificity of decision-making, the flexibility of various actions means, the attitude to risk, the motivation of achievement and value-motivational attitude to activity and leadership. <...> Basing on the theoretical analysis of the innovative behavior components, the authors of the article presents an empirical study of gender characteristics of innovative traits and leadership skills among students. <...> The success of human society existence in the twenty-first century will directly depend on personal qualities and abilities development. <...> The identity, its potential and activity aimed at creation, not the destruction of human civilization, are the objects of modern psychological research. <...> Certainly, among many personal qualities that characterize an effective leader, innovation is one of the most important components. <...> According to a systematic-dispositional approach in studying the individual’s traits, innovation is a combination of personal qualities of perception, assessment, development, rapid adoption and implementation of original ideas [7]. <...> The main characteristics of innovative behavior can be the specificity of decisionmaking, the flexibility of actions, the attitude to risk, the motivation of achievement and value-motivation attitude to work, innovation, and leadership. <...> The psychological research traditionally shows gender along with age, education, nationality as a contextual variable. <...> The multidimensionality of gender was revealed in studies that questioned the biological nature of sex and demonstrated its social and con24 Mikhailova O.B., Kaminskaya E.A. Gender Characteristics of Innovation and Leadership Explicity. structed nature (V.S. Ageyev, V.E. Kagan, I.S. Kletsina, I.S.Kon, L.N. Ozhigova, I.Y. Shilov, T.I. Yufereva and others). <...> The gender “dimension” of innovative behavior makes it possible to interpret the innovation manifestations taking into account the psychological nature of sex differentiation. <...> The present condition of the society blurs the specifics of male and female roles, erases many differences, previously seeming natural, while the idea of equality is sometimes interpreted as sameness. <...> It is also provoked by an unclear delineation of the psychology <...>