The encyclopedia gives an idea of the most important principle organizing the entire system of traditional culture - the ratio "male-female" .. For the first time, information about the relationship between the sexes, sexual symbolism, the distribution of social, labor, reproductive roles. is collected together and shown in a comprehensive manner. There is extensive material on folk magic, beliefs and folklore, relating mostly to the end of the XIX-XX century. The authors are employees of the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography . Peter the Great - use both modern research data and unpublished materials from the REM archive (Ethnographic Bureau B. N. Tenisheva), along with this include ethnographic and folkloric records collected during expeditions. The encyclopedia, designed for a wide readership, will be of interest to ethnographers, folklorists, anthropologists - specialists whose field of study includes the problem of gender and tradition.