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Gender Mainstreamingin Post-Soviet Ukraine:Application and ApplicabilityOlena Hankivsky & Anastasiya SalnykovaPublished online: 16 Aug 2010.

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Gender Mainstreaming in Post-SovietUkraine: Application and Applicability

OLENA HANKIVSKY ANDANASTASIYA SALNYKOVA

Gender equality has gained substantial political importance in Ukraine, but implemen-tation of the international trend towards ‘gender mainstreaming’ has had mixedsuccess: the phrase is not yet part of the main political discourse, where older termsstill prevail. The very term ‘gender’ is novel, and attitudes towards women reflecttraditional concerns. Much legislation was adopted in the past decade, supposedly toenshrine gender equality; but this has not translated into meaningful social change.Social and economic conditions, including unfamiliarity with emerging global stan-dards, preserve stereotyped thinking and militate against effective action. The issuedoes not feature strongly in education; women’s organizations are weak; the mediado not engage effectively with the issue; and ambivalent attitudes limit the impact offoreign sources of information and funding. These factors could all be deployedmore effectively in order to bring Ukraine closer to world best practice. In addition,a more context-driven application of the gender mainstreaming model would resultin its greater practical impact in the country.

Introduction

In the context of Ukraine’s movement towards integration with the European

Union, and efforts to adhere to European norms, gender equality has gained

significant political importance. Ukraine was one of the first countries in the

world to adopt a constitutional guarantee of gender equality and since then

has signed numerous international documents to affirm the country’s commit-

ment to creating institutional mechanisms for promoting its realization.1

However, with the exception of a few non-governmental reports and sporadic

government reports to the United Nations (UN), virtually no attention has been

paid to evaluating the implementation of gender equality instruments and in

Olena Hankivsky is an associate professor at the Public Policy Program, Simon Fraser University,Vancouver.Anastasiya Salnykova is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at theUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.26, No.3, September 2010, pp.315–340ISSN 1352-3279 print/1743-9116 onlineDOI: 10.1080/13523279.2010.497752 # 2010 Taylor & Francis

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particular what can be considered the beginnings of a gender mainstreaming

(GM) approach in Ukraine.

According to the UN,

Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the

implications for women and men of any planned action, including

legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels. It is

a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well

as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring

and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic

and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally.2

Adopted in 1995 at the Beijing Conference on Women, this is recognized

by the United Nations and its member states internationally as the most

effective approach for achieving gender equality in the public sphere.3

Despite its potential, however, evaluations of GM to date4 reveal a number

of substantive shortcomings ranging from the conceptualization of GM to the

inadequate implementation of this strategy, leading some scholars to question

its fundamental utility.5 Although GM has been examined in developed

countries, including the EU states,6 GM assessment in the development

context, including within post-Soviet transition countries that are not yet

EU members, is rudimentary.7 The findings in the present article address

this significant gap and contribute to an understanding of GM within the

political interplay of gender and the dynamics of emerging democracies in

post-communist countries such as Ukraine.

The discussion is based on 32 in-depth interviews with experts from three

sectors – state officials, non-governmental organization (NGOs) representa-

tives and experts on gender issues – and also analyses of key governmental

and non-governmental documents and academic literature. The list of inter-

viewees was compiled with the assistance of key experts in each sector

using snowball sampling. The positive response rate was high for this

study, with only two experts refusing to participate, both of whom represented

the governmental sector. Each sector was equally represented and some

experts were simultaneously affiliated with two sectors. Moreover, the

majority of NGO representatives had both local and international affiliations.

Geographically, two-thirds of the interviews were conducted in the capital

city, Kyiv; the balance were undertaken in other regions such as Lviv in the

west, Kharkiv in the east, Simferopol in the south and Vinnytsia in the

west-centre of Ukraine.

The article reveals some of the key reasons why, despite the impressive

quantity of formal equality policies and legislation in Ukraine, these have

not translated into a meaningful social or political change. While education,

improved implementation, monitoring and research are identified among

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other factors as necessary prerequisites for improving Ukraine’s response to

gender equality, the research also demonstrates the challenges of implement-

ing a trans-national strategy such as GM within a national context in a way that

is responsive to current socio-economic circumstances, language, culture and

traditions, especially in relation to gender issues.8 The findings point to the

limitations of adopting Western-style policy tools without adequate attention

to the context and specific social realities of countries that are transforming

themselves from communism to democracy and provide concrete suggestions

of how these challenges can be addressed.

This article begins with an overview of the concept of GM in the Ukrainian

policy context. It moves on to provide a brief description of important post-

independence developments in the area of gender equality. The third section

provides an assessment of Ukrainian society and of the three areas that are

considered crucial in successful implementation of GM: government and

national machineries; women’s and equality organizations; and academic

research in gender and women’s studies. The article ends with policy rec-

ommendations regarding the future of gender equality in Ukraine.

Gender Mainstreaming in Ukraine

Even with calls to expand gender mainstreaming in Ukraine,9 and assertions

that Ukraine is making attempts to mainstream gender into its policies and

programmes, GM is not an official term in any of Ukraine’s laws or policies.

While ‘certain steps and efforts to mainstream gender have been . . . under-

taken by the national government with the support of international institutions

and in partnership with civil society’,10 it is also the case, as one of the study

participants from the government explained, that ‘the GM concept is used but

not that much in state structures’. She continued: ‘I know the GM concept, but

not through state channels, I picked it up from NGOs and through self-

education’. Even though GM may be used by certain gender experts working

within government and the NGO community, and may even be implicit in

government’s strategies, it is not yet part of the mainstream discourse.

In government documents, for instance, such concepts as ‘equal rights and

opportunities’ and ‘gender equality’ are used. To illustrate: the Equal Rights

Law aims ‘to achieve parity status for women and men in all the areas of

social functioning through legal provision for equal rights and opportunities

for women and men, liquidation of sex-based discrimination and use of

special temporary arrangements targeted at extermination of the disparity

between opportunities for men and women to realize their equal rights’.11

Article three of this law states that ‘the state policy of ensuring equal rights

and opportunities for women and men is targeted at: establishment of

gender equality’. The newest gender strategy – ‘On Ensuring Gender Equality

GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN POST-SOVIET UKRAINE 317

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in the Ukrainian Society in the Years of 2006–2010’ – aims to adapt the legis-

lation of Ukraine to accord with European Union (EU) legislation in the area

of gender equality. In other sectors, ‘gender integration’ or simply referring to

‘gender issues’ is the preferred approach. As an international NGO employee

reported, ‘we don’t use gender mainstreaming, instead we use “gender inte-

gration”’; and a local NGO activist explained: ‘We would rather talk of

gender issues’. Gradually, however, the discourse of GM is spreading in

Ukraine. For example, the workshop on GM in Ukraine organized by the Fulb-

right programme in Ukraine in May 2010 used the GM term literally to integrate

the debates in Ukraine with the ones taking place elsewhere in the world.

It is also important to highlight that the term ‘gender’ itself is new to

Ukrainian language and society. As a researcher interviewed revealed, it

was only in 1995 that the term ‘entered into the consciousness of society

and started to be used’. Not surprisingly, the interviewees highlighted that

the term is poorly understood across sectors. According to a state official,

‘civil servants don’t know the meaning of the word “gender”. . . sometimes

even women’s organizations don’t understand these gender things clearly’.

Moreover, a university professor stated: ‘I doubt that even the family and

youth minister knows what gender is’.12 As was evident throughout the inter-

views, the lack of understanding also translates into a certain negativity and

resistance towards gender-related issues. As one researcher summarized,

‘gender for the state is like a red cloth for the bull’.

The majority of participants mentioned that gender is perceived as synon-

ymous with women’s issues, which makes it open to ridicule. Reporting on her

communications with state officials, a research centre director shared: ‘They

say that women thought [gender] up so that they have something to talk

about’. Furthermore, ignorance in terms of gender ‘is extremely spread at

the level of the public service workers and teachers’, in the words of a univer-

sity instructor. This respondent further elaborated by recalling that ‘a couple of

years ago a dean in my university said that since we do not have an equivalent

to the word gender in the Ukrainian language we do not have such a problem

in Ukraine’. A state official also explained that people do not realize the

existence of discrimination:

When we ask people if there is gender discrimination, they say ‘no’; but

when we ask specifically about applying for jobs or getting bank credits

they change the answer to ‘yes’. This is because we are taught that there

is no gender problem in our country.

These attitudes are evident at the highest levels of politics. When the first

gender equality bill was proposed in 1999 it failed to attract political support

and was rejected in 2001. As a state official recalled, ‘as they discussed the law

in the parliament even [the female member of parliament (MP)] Samoilyk,

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who was one of the authors of the draft law, said that “when we live better,

there will be no need for gender” and the other MP said that he was against

the law since as believers we are to be against women influencing politics’.

The next time the equal rights law was on the parliamentary agenda, a

former state official and activist recollected, ‘the session moderator from

the communist party, Adam Martyniuk, said with cynicism: “Colleagues,

don’t leave yet. We’ve just adopted the law on extinct species, now let’s

also quickly vote to protect women”’. In addition, a local NGO activist

reported that ‘when we asked the newly appointed provincial head why

gender equality was not among his priorities, he said: because gender is not

a Ukrainian word and our reality is different’.

Significantly, a common theme among the majority of respondents was

that the concepts of gender, gender equality and GM are seen as integral to

a Western paradigm, imposed by Western organizations: ‘gender is seen as

something foreign’, and ‘something only countries, that have nothing else to

do, are worried about’. Therefore, as expressed by a university professor

and an NGO representative, the feeling that ‘gender equality is thought of

as not relevant for Ukrainian society’ and ‘as something American’ is wide-

spread. Even one of the women’s activists appeared to be in agreement with

such a position, as seen from her comment that

Gender policy is not natural for Ukraine. We have a different history;

we had Princesses Olha and Anna. Women could always take care of

themselves. They don’t go to politics today, because their dignity

doesn’t fall low enough to engage in it.

Development towards Gender Equality

Present attitudes towards gender are largely rooted in the pre-independence

history that had a twofold impact on gender equality. On the one hand, the

Soviet regime provided important political and socio-economic guarantees

such as education and employment for women, plus parliamentary gender

quotas of at least 30 per cent. At the same time, Soviet policy maintained

the traditional treatment of women that perpetuated the view that childbearing

is a woman’s primary duty.13 The communist party claimed to have achieved

gender equality, thus denying the need for improvement.14 While granting

generous maternity leaves, childcare service and ‘mother heroine’ awards,

the system offered women as a group few opportunities to develop into a

meaningful political force.15

By contrast, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s thousands of Ukrainian

women engaged in public life largely thanks to Gorbachev’s glasnost’ and the

revival of the national-democratic movement.16 However, most women’s

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organizations at that time followed the Soviet maternalist rhetoric and intro-

duced women into politics as berehynias – that is, guardians of the hearth17

– or as activist mothers.18 According to a university professor, ‘there was

no classical feminist movement in Ukraine; it was in the framework of a

national-democratic movement’: as a part of the independence movement,

these women’s organizations focused on liberating the nation before liberating

women.19

After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the country concentrated its

efforts on developing laws to replace the Soviet Constitution. Simultaneously,

women’s rights became increasingly important internationally. The Fourth

World Conference on Women (Beijing 1995), where GM was officially

adopted, is considered

A watershed moment for the women’s movement in Ukraine, as activists

began to realize that the state is obliged under international law to take

effective steps to protect women from violence and that state resources

could be designed to defend women’s rights.20

At the same time, the Ukrainian state largely ignored women’s issues

throughout the 1990s and denied, as Hrycak argues, ‘the importance of not

only gender discrimination but also other issues raised by maternalist as

well as feminist activists’.21 For example, in 1990 the ‘Permanent Commis-

sion on the Status of Women, Family, Motherhood and Childhood’ was

established to evaluate legislation, work conditions, and rights of families,

mothers and children. It never mentioned gender equality in its reports and

was dissolved in 1994.22 Moreover, in the 1992 state programme ‘On the

Long-term Improvement of the Status of Women and the Protection of

Family, Mothers, and Childhood’, and also in the rhetoric of the division

for women, family, motherhood and childhood created within the cabinet of

ministers in 1993, the Ukrainian government treated women’s issues in

terms of children’s social welfare programmes.23

In 1996, an important shift occurred, with the Ukrainian Constitution

(Article 24) clearly laying out a guarantee of men and women’s equality.24

This was followed by numerous other noteworthy developments. In 2001 a

presidential decree was issued on the matter of women’s rights and opportu-

nities in public life.25 Besides calling for improving the social status of

women in Ukraine, this was the first official document to declare that

women’s inequality was a government priority. In July 2003 the crucial

post of gender adviser was established in all ministries and regional adminis-

trations. Since then the notion of gender has become present at least de jure in

every area of governance in Ukraine. The 2005 law ‘On Ensuring the Equal

Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men’ seeks parity for men and

women in all sectors and legislates taking special measures to overcome the

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gender imbalance.26 Finally, the 2006 cabinet of ministers’ Concept of the

State Programme ‘On Establishing Gender Equality in the Ukrainian

Society for the years of 2006–2010’ states the goal of ensuring equal rights

and opportunities for both women and men as a fundamental human right.

In particular, it emphasizes the promotion of gender culture and the elimin-

ation of stereotypes of women’s social roles, and sets the task of ‘adaptation

to the international principle of gender democracy’.27

In addition to these legislative developments, two national action plans have

been issued by the Ukrainian government: ‘On Improving the Women’s Status

and Empowering Their Role in Society for 1997–2000’ and ‘On Improving

Women’s Status and Promoting Gender Equality for 2001–2005’. These

plans introduce the need for gender analysis of legislation; the second plan in

particular introduced a post-maternalist approach28 to evaluating women’s

and men’s status in society.29 In addition, there have been a number of parlia-

mentary hearings on gender issues including ‘On the UN Convention on the

Elimination of Discrimination Against Women’ in 1995, ‘The Situation with

Women in Ukraine: Reality and Prospects’ in 2004, ‘On the Situation and

Tasks in the Sphere of Gender Violence Prevention’ and ‘Equal Rights and

Equal Opportunities in Ukraine: Reality and Prospects’ in 2006.30

On the international front, as a UN founding member Ukraine has signed

and ratified all major international treaties on human rights and women’s

rights.31 Ukraine’s participation in the Beijing Conference on Women in

1995 resulted in the development of a national machinery on gender issues.

Ukraine is also a signatory of the UN Millennium Declaration, including the

UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which prioritize gender equality

and the empowerment of women. In turn, the Ukrainian government has devel-

oped its own national MDGs that include ‘improvement of maternal health

and reduction of child mortality’ and ‘ensuring gender equality by 2015’.

In general, however, the post-independence distribution of the Ukrainian

budget is not favourable to gender issues. Gender organizations are consist-

ently excluded from public funding. For example, the ‘List of Social Priorities

for National Youth and Children NGO Proposals in 2006’ includes six cat-

egories for state funding among which five are concerned with initiatives

for youth and children and one with strengthening the family and improving

the demographic situation; women as a group are not mentioned at all.32

Another telling example is that less than 1 per cent of the budget of the

state committee on youth and family (charged with promoting gender

equality) was allocated for improving women’s status in 2002.33

In sum, since gaining independence, and in the midst of tremendous

political, social and economic transitions, Ukraine has made impressive

strides in terms of gender equality transition; and yet, most initiatives were

focused on protecting stereotypical notions of Ukrainian women rather than

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creating equal opportunities and changing the relations between men and

women.34 In 2001, True and Minstrom concluded that Ukraine had adopted

only a lower level of national machineries to deal with GM.35 Similarly,

Kisselyova has observed that ‘in Ukraine, gender equality has not gained

political meaning, for it still has not received understanding as a part of the

process of democratization and realization of human rights’.36 A notable

deviation from this tendency is the most recent 2006 state programme on

establishing gender equality, which may represent a qualitatively new

development in gender policy as the beginning of a GM approach in Ukraine.

Assessing the Status Quo

Comparing Ukraine’s progress with other European countries, Serhiy Plotyan,

chief consultant of the parliamentary committee on European integration, has

concluded that ‘regardless of the prolonged co-operation in the framework of

the European Council and the declared direction towards European integration,

our country has not reached European standards in the sphere of gender

equality’.37 And as it was put by one of the participants in our study, ‘As far

as GM in Ukraine is concerned, apart from the efforts of NGOs, there are

few results because few people understand what it is and what it is for’. To

grasp the current state of affairs in Ukraine, it is necessary to evaluate both

the achievements and the obstacles to moving forward on issues of gender

equality in Ukrainian society in general, and in particular within three pillars

of society that are considered key to successful GM: academic research and

education in gender and women’s studies; women’s and equality-seeking

organizations; and national machineries for gender equality.38

Ukrainian Society

Economic insecurity is one key reason that gender is not a priority in

Ukrainian society. This point was made by a third of the respondents and is

evidenced in the following quotations: ‘Economic instability is a problem.

All thinking is about survival’ (NGO employee); ‘the general understanding

in society is that all social programmes are secondary to economic issues’

(NGO employee); and ‘People think “Economy first – then gender”’ (state

official). Socio-economic changes following the break-up of the Soviet

Union have generally been challenging, but particularly difficult for women,

who have become increasingly excluded from the social and political fore-

front39 and who experience increases in the feminization of poverty.40

In addition, women’s work patterns have changed, with both paid work and

domestic responsibilities increasing.41 Such a transition-related shift has

been interpreted as ‘a process of “aggressive remasculinization”’42 in Ukrai-

nian society’s development. In addition, sexist images and ideologies are on

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the rise and, according to the deputy minister for family, youth and sport,

Ludmyla Lukyanova, ‘stereotypes of public perception create a very powerful

barrier in achieving gender equality in our society’.

The presence and consequences of stereotyped perceptions of gender roles

were reported by the overwhelming majority of the participants in this study.

For example: ‘Not all men think that women have to be equal in all aspects . . .

there’s lots of stereotypes that remain’ (research centre director); ‘We live in a

stereotypical patriarchal society’ (state official); ‘Women here are talked

about as physical bodies’ (university professor). In Ukraine, as in many

other jurisdictions, there is strong sense that anything to do with gender is

necessarily linked to women or feminism, as evidenced by the following

quotes: ‘Gender is perceived as something which only concerns women,

who try to squeeze men out’, and ‘The notion of gender has a female face

whether we want it or not’. These assumptions permeate all levels of

society. Recent studies indicate that even college students and young pro-

fessionals endorse highly stereotypical attitudes towards women and men.43

As a state official explained, ‘the presence of discrimination is denied in

Ukraine, everyone keeps talking of the woman-berehynia on the pedestal

image’. The perpetuation and celebration of this image and its inconsistency

with gender equality is illustrated by President Yushchenko’s message on

International Women’s Day in March 2007:

This day is marked worldwide. The international community and free

mass media draw our attention to the problem of gender inequality.

March 8 is officially recognized by the United Nations Organization

and 2007 has been declared a year of equal opportunities in the

European Union . . . On the other hand, I want us to never forget that

the most precious and important things in our life are associated with

women. They are our source of inspiration, tenderness and love, and

guardians of our homes and our country.44

Significantly, gender stereotypes are also normalized among women. As a

policy decision maker explained, ‘women themselves believe in the berehynia

myth and deny the fact of discrimination’. This is further substantiated by the

following responses: ‘There are many gender-insensitive women’ (gender

researcher), and ‘women don’t understand that inequality exists’ (NGO acti-

vist). Similarly, Predborska observed that gender inequality is firmly

entrenched in the conservative views of many Ukrainian women.45 According

to close to half of the participants, the mass media play a key role in perpetu-

ating harmful stereotypes. ‘The media keep spreading patriarchal stereotypes,

especially in women’s and men’s magazines’ (activist), and ‘The media,

especially soap operas on pro-Russian patriarchal channels, prevent the

youth from understanding gender issues’ (university professor).

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Generally speaking, participants highlighted that there is little knowledge

of gender in society, or of government initiatives that have been developed to

work towards gender equality. Most telling is the lack of awareness about the

existence of Ukraine’s gender equality law. According to a university pro-

fessor, ‘we had a national survey . . . about the equality law for men and

women: 62 per cent had never heard of it and 31 per cent knew about it but

did not know its content’.

Gender Education and Research

Gender is a novel problem in academic studies in the region.46 Consequently,

a number of respondents reported that ‘gender studies are marginalized, not

taken seriously’ (researcher), and ‘education is not performing well in the

function of advancing gender equality’ (NGO employee). Moreover, attempts

to unify efforts across the country have failed. According to a university

instructor and activist, ‘there was a failed attempt in 2000 to create an associ-

ation of gender studies’. Another university professor explained that ‘there is

an idea to create an interdisciplinary centre for gender studies, but there are not

enough specialists’. These reports are consistent with previous conclusions by

Shymchyshyn that ‘feminist theory cannot easily penetrate university curri-

cula because it seriously questions the male-oriented ideology of Ukrainian

society as well as the university, which serves as one institution for imple-

menting this ideology’.47

At the same time, it is important to acknowledge progress in the past

decade. In the words of a state official, ‘in terms of gender integration into uni-

versity education, there are big changes’. For example, the first university

course ‘Fundamentals of Gender Studies’ was endorsed by the ministry of

education in 2003. It is not a mandatory subject yet, but for the departments

willing to include it a developed state-recommended programme is readily

available. Similarly, the first textbook on gender studies is now published in

Ukrainian. As a university professor explained, ‘it is good to finally have

something. I include some chapters from it into my course, even though

I don’t agree with some others’. Another university instructor and an activist

described the many achievements at the micro-level: ‘six gender courses are

being taught at the Culture Studies MA programme in Lviv University, one

of them on masculinity studies’. Moreover, a gender researcher reported

that ‘up to 20 gender courses are taught in the Karazin University [in

Kharkiv]’. Similarly, a researcher reflected on the recent changes by stating

that ‘five years ago the topic of gender was not considered appropriate for a

philosopher. In contrast now, as our department head heard of the EU grant

on gender, he started considering a course on gender for our department’.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has also helped in

organizing educational gender centres at universities, and up to 30 such

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centres in five different cities work on university premises across the country

as NGOs, one of them hosted by the Kyiv Technical University.

At the same time, there remain significant challenges in terms of academic

education and research. In the words of a policy-maker, ‘I am convinced that a

lot of courses remain on paper. They’re not taught at university’. This is

echoed in the recollection of a university professor that ‘the president of the

university does not want to include a gender course into the curriculum,

saying that this is feminism’. It is difficult to teach courses and hard to fit

them into the ministry of education study plan. And even when courses are

offered, it is also the case that ‘gender is often taught from either an

extreme feminist or a traditionalist perspective’ and ‘even students in the uni-

versities where gender studies are taught often treat gender as a discipline

only, not something to be implemented in real life’ (NGO director). Resistance

to gender equality penetrates all levels of education, which is alarming in the

context of a need to bring up a more gender-sensitive generation. As a univer-

sity professor reports,

In teachers’ guidelines for elementary schools you can find different

suggested exercises for boys and girls. The teachers’ instructions for

Crimean kindergartens encourage developing patience and friendliness

in girls. In addition, when it comes to maths it is suggested to ask girls to

count flowers and boys – to count cars.48

Finally, gender research is underdeveloped and often of poor quality. In

the words of a university instructor: ‘Now everyone tries to include the

word “gender” into their titles, and to justify it they simply count the

number of men and women; but gender is not just about counting, quality

research is lacking’. There is also ‘a lack of good statistics on gender’

(gender researcher). It is important to highlight that there is no national pro-

gramme to support gender research, and very little financing is available for

such enterprises.49 The precarious nature of the situation was made clear by

an NGO director who recalled: ‘Two key people who started gender work

in Ukraine and did so at their own cost simply died’. Consequently, there is

a lack of gender researchers and specialists in the country. As a result ‘even

interested state officials don’t have enough specialists to get advice from

because the educational system is not preparing such specialists’ (gender

researcher). The general lack of available research and gender specialists

greatly impedes any effective knowledge transfer to the policy sector and

undermines efforts for moving towards greater gender equality.

Women’s Movement and Equality-Seeking Organizations

Although close to 700 women’s organizations exist in Ukraine,50 half of all

respondents reported that there is no strong women’s movement or effective

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organizations able to lobby for issues of gender equality. This is clear in the

following quotations: ‘The women’s movement is not very influential and

in recent years it has got weaker’ (state official), and ‘there is no strong

women’s organizations to influence the situation’ (NGO activist and univer-

sity professor). As mentioned above, the 1980s witnessed the emergence of

the first independent women’s organizations, many of which focused on the

goal of Ukraine’s independence and, for the most part, used maternalist dis-

courses in their advocacy work. This proved an effective strategy in recruiting

Ukrainian women who had never been politically active. Following indepen-

dence, however, this central force lost direction and momentum. As Hrycak

explains, ‘Ukraine’s independence left women activists struggling to under-

stand what role they could or should play in public life’.51

In the 1990s, after the Fourth World Conference on Women at which GM

was first endorsed at the international level, Ukraine experienced an influx of

international organizations supporting equality initiatives in the country.

Ukrainian organizations started to be shaped by these foreign actors and

took up Western gender terminology in order to secure funds, which were

often tenuous and time-limited. These trends ‘cut short the development of

promising feminist groups, and created an elite of NGO experts who

stopped speaking in local idioms’.52 For example, a gender research institute

director reported that ‘the only centre that was getting stable support over ten

years is the one in Kharkiv. However, its impact is low because it does not co-

operate with the Ukrainian authorities, and is pro-Russian’. Similarly, an NGO

representative complained ‘a very narrow circle of organizations have access

to big money and their work is not very effective or noticeable’. By contrast,

other organizations on the ground were left without significant financial

support, and this was justified by the donors who referred to them as ‘local

traditions’.53

In the responses of a number of participants, foreign funds have also been

blamed for imposing a cookie-cutter approach to gender equality: ‘They have

a standard approach to all, without exploring the specifics of the Ukrainian

situation’ (researcher); ‘GM can’t have a universal glossary: we need

special terminology for every field. . . . Every person has a gender sensitivity

door; but for everyone it is located in a different place’ (NGO representative).

Moreover, many respondents noted that access to funding often required

accommodation to the specific agendas of foreign agencies. To illustrate

this, a researcher explained: ‘At first we were a women’s organization

because we got an American grant, then we collaborated with the Canadian

fund and they required a broader mandate so we changed to a gender organ-

ization’. Another NGO worker complained about how difficult it is to have

to adhere to the changing funding paradigms and priorities of foreign

donors and foundations: ‘Four or five years ago the Canada–Ukraine

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Gender Fund stopped supporting women organizations and focused on gender.

But you can’t shift like this here; we don’t even have a history of the women’s

movement; we can’t go in line with the global tendencies yet’.

Despite the problematic aspects of foreign funding, its positive impact is

also tangible. In the words of a university professor, ‘all gender themes

remain alive thanks to the support and pressure from international bodies.

Were it not for this, even the formal documents might not have been

adopted yet’. Indeed, there is a general recognition that there is a lack of

funding from the Ukrainian government: ‘women’s organizations do not do

enough lobbying because of low institutional capacity’. Many organizations

have simply ceased to exist because they were unable to secure adequate

funding. In the words of a state official, ‘during independence struggles

women’s movements consolidated but later disintegrated because of economic

problems’. According to an NGO representative, ‘the state doesn’t allow

NGOs to make money or to become self-sufficient’. Another state official

and activist asked: ‘Canada and the United States support us; why not our

own government?’

The lack of coordination and networking among existing organizations

was also cited as a serious impediment by numerous interviewees: ‘There

are some organizations that work on this, but they are not united’ (university

instructor); ‘The women’s movement is very disorganized; there is no unity as

in some countries’ (NGO employee); and ‘Women don’t support each other,

there is no consolidation of the women’s movement’ (state official). Not sur-

prisingly, there are serious divisions between organizations. Moreover, there

is little sharing of information, and most organizations do not know about

each other.54 Perhaps most importantly, as a local activist put it, ‘women

have lost hope that it is possible to achieve something through the women’s

movement’. Finally, the lack of coordination between women’s organizations

and government was also mentioned. An NGO employee recalled that ‘the

justice minister signed the decree to create legal gender expertise but

invited us – the experts – to the discussion only afterwards’. As a result,

women’s organizations have little influence on the state’s handling of

women’s issues.55

Government and National Machineries

All 32 interviewees stated that the passing of the law on equal opportunities in

2005 was a watershed in gender equality. Yet each expressed serious doubts

about the potential of the law to make transformative change. A number of

respondents claimed that the passage of the law was only thanks to inter-

national pressures: ‘The passage of the law was influenced by the understand-

ing that without gender regulations we’re not going to get to Europe’ (state

official), and ‘the world is putting pressure on Ukraine – that is why some

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things are getting done but they aren’t taken too seriously’ (state official). As a

consequence the law’s potential efficacy in Ukraine is doubted: ‘The law was

adopted, but internally the state power doesn’t believe in it’ (university

instructor), and ‘we have a law but we don’t have a change of consciousness’

(state official). In a similar vein a researcher argued that ‘the law will not affect

anything, because the officials do not know what to do with this gender; for

them gender means spying on the relations between men and women in

bed’. Furthermore, a university professor stated that ‘the law is not enough,

there is an urgent need for a strategy of gender development’. Moreover,

while many respondents noted the existence of national plans for gender

equality, more than one-third had serious reservations about their value.

Many did not see these plans as translating into any type of meaningful

state policies: ‘We don’t even have a well-developed state policy regarding

gender’ (researcher), ‘There is no government policy targeting GM’ (univer-

sity instructor), and ‘There is an Action Plan on who does what, but there is no

common underlying platform on the goals and principles’ (researcher).

Not surprisingly, almost all the respondents also bemoaned the lack of

implementation of both the law and national gender plans. This was summar-

ized by a research centre director: ‘There is the law and there is its implemen-

tation. These are two different things’. Similarly an NGO director reported:

‘Gender policy is not implemented across ministries. Our gender policy is

formal; there is no good central body to deal with the issue; the ministry is

only preoccupied with the social protection of women, which is not enough’.

As illustrated by the following, half of the respondents reported that the lack

of implementation is linked to the absence of sanctions for non-compliance:

‘There is no monitoring or punishment for poor implementation’ (NGO repre-

sentative), and ‘the severity of the law is compensated by the fact that no one

thinks it has to be obeyed’ (researcher). In addition, for a third of respondents,

a key obstacle to implementation is a lack of funding and resources.

Besides insufficient financing, the coordinating structures have been sub-

jected to frequent organizational changes.56 About half of the respondents

mentioned that frequent restructuring of power institutions creates organiz-

ational chaos and prevents effective work. Over the 18 years of independence,

the Ukrainian state machinery responsible for gender issues was restructured

ten times.57 The institutions currently responsible for gender are the depart-

ment of gender policy in the ministry of youth, which was created in 2004

and is charged with ‘participation in development and ensuring implemen-

tation of the state policy on issues of family, children, youth . . . equality of

rights and opportunities of women and men, prevention of violence in the

family’, and the sub-committee on gender policy in the human rights parlia-

mentary committee.58 Importantly, ‘political instability leads to high person-

nel flow and the need to teach new people over and over’ (NGO employee).

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Over a third of participants mentioned a lack of awareness about gender

issues at all levels of government. This was evident in the following obser-

vations: ‘Government needs to take on gender issues but does not know

how’ (state official); ‘Our politicians and bureaucrats don’t understand why

they should pay attention to gender’ (researcher); and ‘some politicians are car-

riers of patriarchal values. This is dangerous for both women and men. They

came to parliament just because they were successful businessmen but now

they are making decisions not about business but about the whole society’

(NGO employee). An interviewed scholar has observed that ‘After the presi-

dential decree we have a system of gender advisors, but what can they

advise when they don’t have information or experience?’ Indeed, the function

of gender advisers was assigned not to gender specialists but to the deputy

ministers and deputy provincial governors on top of their previous work

responsibilities and regardless of their educational background. Another

reason for the lack of awareness, according to an NGO employee, is that

‘whenever the issue of gender is raised, men say that there is article 24 of the

Constitution that guarantees equal rights to all, therefore the gender problem is

artificial’. Many stories were recollected by the respondents on how resistant

those in power are to change. For example, an NGO employee shared the

view that a male communist politician said ‘If you [women] become so equal

then who will give birth in the country?’ Finally, there is the issue of motivation.

A university instructor explained: ‘There are no material benefits from gender

promotion therefore there is no interest among officials’.

A third of the participants believe, as does an NGO employee, that one of

the key remaining obstacles to gender equality is ‘women’s lack of partici-

pation in politics’. After Ukraine’s independence women’s political partici-

pation decreased dramatically. In 1991 it fell from 36 to a mere 3 per

cent.59 In the current parliament, formed following the early elections of

September 2007, the proportion of women is 7.5 per cent. A former state

official similarly observed: ‘We don’t have women in leadership positions.

All the high positions are men’. Indeed, besides the exceptional Yulia

Tymoshenko – the former Ukrainian prime minister – women do not serve

in the cabinet of ministers. Thus there were no women in the last two govern-

ments in Ukraine, and only three out of 27 parliamentary committees are headed

by a woman in the post-2007 parliament. The low number of women in the

highest levels of power led some respondents to conclude, as did a state

official, that ‘women in Ukraine are simply not allowed into politics’. A

former state official also asserted that ‘politicians do not want to share their

power; without women the competition is lower’. This extends to women poli-

ticians who, as a university professor explained, ‘are against feminism because

taking such a position prevents further advancement of their career, as well as

creates competition with other women’. The implications of this are serious.

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According to the International Centre for Policy Studies, ‘unbalanced represen-

tation of women and men in the Parliament and local councils contradicts the

principles of democracy, it impedes the recognition of international commit-

ments undertaken by Ukraine, and it limits the capacity of elected bodies to

comprehensively analyze and reasonably consider social policies’.60

However, even women who gain power are not necessarily supportive of

gender equality.61 As one example, most women MPs were not supportive of

the equal rights law. One of them mentioned in reference to the first gender

bill, proposed in 1999, that Ukraine could not afford this law before the

country solves the problem of children in need.62 Women deputies ridiculed

the notion of equal rights legislation, claiming that women are already equal

if not over-emancipated and need to devote themselves more to motherhood.63

A scholar who worked on this law draft remembered:

I could not appeal to women either. Lilia Hryhorovych – our “great gen-

derist” today – was one of the first to be against the law. I actually had to

fight with the women’s movement at the time for the idea of gender

equality.

Finally, the stance of the new president, Viktor Yanukovych, and that of

the new government led by Prime Minister Azarov give no ground for opti-

mism. During the election campaign Yanukovych remarked that his rival,

Yulia Tymoshenko, ought to pursue her whims in her kitchen, where

women belong.64 In his turn Azarov echoed this sentiment. When asked

why there were no women in his cabinet he replied: ‘Conducting reforms is

not women’s business . . . the current situation in Ukraine is too tough for

women to handle’.65

Moving Forward: Suggested Directions for Change

The role of education figured prominently in the recommendations made by

the participants in our study. All respondents identified the need for education

– at all levels of society and within all sectors – as the most important prere-

quisite for making any meaningful inroads in terms of gender equality. For

example, ‘you have to work at all levels to make change’ (centre director),

‘we need to educate all levels of society’ (state official), ‘there is a need for

a massive gender literacy campaign at all levels’ (university instructor), and

‘what is missing is a balanced, broad and deep understanding of gender

issues’ (NGO representative). Many, as evidenced in the following quotation,

also underscored the need to distinguish between gender and feminism in

order for Ukrainian society to become more open to gender equality initiat-

ives: ‘What is necessary is a general information breakthrough . . . to make

people understand that gender is not feminism’ (state official).

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For two-thirds of the respondents, education should begin with the general

public: ‘We need to start with a serious campaign accessible to the people in

order to show how GM actually helps each woman and man’ (researcher),

‘first there needs to be an understanding of gender issues by the people’

(NGO representative), and ‘the general public needs to understand what is

written in the gender equality law; society should evolve and the knowledge

base should change’ (NGO activist). Developing information that is histori-

cally and culturally relevant and accessible to the general public was also

underlined in the following quotations: ‘Information campaigns are often tar-

geting people who are already specializing in the problem, but the regular

citizen is not reached’ (state official), and ‘even the little information that

exists is not available to the wide masses of people’ (university professor).

Two-thirds also identified the need to educate politicians and bureaucrats:

‘we need to influence the consciousness of public figures’ (NGO representa-

tive), ‘education of the representatives in power by the state itself is essential’

(researcher); and finally, a university instructor explained: ‘While difficult, . . .

training for civil servants is very important’.

Over a third emphasized the need to engage the educational sector better.

According to a number of experts, ‘we need to use universities, colleges and

schools to improve gender consciousness’ (state official), ‘we have to launch

the education system, so analysts will be prepared by the state because the

state needs them’ (researcher), ‘gender themes have to be incorporated into

different educational fields: political science, economics, legal studies etc.’

(university professor), and ‘there is a real need to train the trainers, for

example the schoolteachers’ (researcher). A university professor also called

for ‘expertise about gender in school textbooks and study programmes’ to

stop the reproduction of stereotypes through the educational system. Even

more specifically, respondents highlighted the need to develop gender

studies further in Ukraine. For example, a gender research centre employee

observed: ‘We need an Institute for gender studies’. Indeed, there is still no

coordinating body for gender studies in the country. The UNDP made a

similar recommendation, calling for a national centre that could synthesize

gender research in Ukraine, translate research knowledge within and beyond

universities to the media and government, facilitate that awareness of

gender, and analyse the status and development opportunities of the gender

perspective in all areas of society.66 Importantly, respondents noted that

these types of initiatives, even if they are funded by international donors,

should be sensitive and responsive to the Ukrainian context. As one NGO

representative elaborated, there is a good research centre but ‘it has a specific

non-Ukrainian orientation, it is oriented towards Russian research potential,

and does not pay attention to the Ukrainian context. It is the responsibility

of donors to think who they fund’.

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Focusing efforts on the media was also considered a priority by nearly

one-quarter of the respondents. A state official argued, for example: ‘We

need to get the media interested, develop professional training for journalists

who would present gender issues. Informing society begins with informing

journalists’. In a similar vein, a university instructor noted that ‘there’s an

urgent need to work with journalists who keep proliferating stereotypes’.

Others yet called for ‘gender censorship of advertisements, commercials

and TV’ (university professor). To achieve more accurate coverage of both

women and men in the media, similar recommendations have been put

forward by the UNDP. They have suggested professional monitoring groups

for news media, an ethical code for journalists, planned and regular training,

and gender courses in journalistic education. As a state official succinctly

explained, ‘informing the media, you inform society.’

In recognition that ‘wide disparities remain between what has been written

on paper and what is practised in reality’,67 nearly all respondents spoke of

the need for improvement in how laws and gender plans and programmes are

actually implemented and monitored. This is evidenced in the following quota-

tions: ‘there is a need to develop a national mechanism of implementing gender

policy’ (state official), and ‘the most important step in the future is to strengthen

the mechanisms of control and monitoring’ (NGO representative). For example,

in terms of the present law on ensuring equal rights and opportunities, there is no

mechanism for reviewing cases of discrimination and no procedure for bringing

guilty parties to account.68 However, realizing, as does an NGO activist, that

‘the law is not enough’, more than a third of all respondents identified the

need to move beyond judicial mechanisms of protection to develop a stronger

overriding state infrastructure to promote gender equality. The numerous sug-

gestions on how the general infrastructure could be improved ranged from ‘a

separate state structure regarding gender’ (researcher), ‘a state programme

and a good central body to deal with the issue, because the ministry is only

preoccupied with the social protection of women, which is not enough’

(research centre director) through to internal champions, as the following

quotations indicate: ‘it would be good to introduce a person responsible for

gender equality into the parliament’ (state official), and ‘we need a gender

lobby in government’ (university instructor). Another theme within these rec-

ommendations was that gender issues could not be relegated to one ministry

within government. An activist addressed the shortcoming of such an approach

by arguing that ‘all ministries have to be responsible for gender law and policies’.

In addition to the formal state structures dealing with gender issues, a little

more than one-third of the study’s participants identified the need to equalize

the participation of women and men in the political process and decision-

making at the highest levels of power. For example, in the words of a

former state official:

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when we have 35 per cent of women in parliament this will change

everything because a woman’s mind works better than a man’s and in

different directions. We need to reach the 30 per cent of women in par-

liament and then it will automatically change everything, we will feel

different power, we will feel a change.

Within the group of respondents who advocated an increase of women in

formal politics, however, there was disagreement on how this would be best

achieved.69 Some were strongly in favour of quotas and, as the following

statement indicates, argued that there is support among Ukrainian citizens

for such an initiative: ‘sociological research says that the population of

Ukraine is not against the introduction of quotas into the political parties’ elec-

toral lists. This includes 60 per cent of women from the ages of 30–40. People

don’t need explanations of what gender quotas are’ (university professor). Yet

not everyone is supportive of this idea and our respondents were divided on

this issue. A parliamentary committee member stated that quotas will not

necessarily make a difference because ‘the women likely to be on the political

party lists will be wives and daughters of the oligarchs and they will only press

voting buttons when told to do so. They will be not women but ‘zhinochky’ in

the parliament. This is often the situation today, therefore it doesn’t even make

sense to divide parliament into men and women or to count how many women

MPs are there’.70 Indeed, despite the existence of quotas in the Soviet Union

and the presence of the 36 per cent of women in parliament in the mid-1980s,71

no profound improvements in gender equality occurred.

Another major theme to emerge is the need for better monitoring and

research. A quarter of our respondents emphasized the need to track progress

systematically and produce knowledge that will lead to change. For example,

‘research and analysis of progress are needed because the only evaluation done

consists of reports to international foundations’ (research centre director).

Similarly, according to an institute director: ‘The officials always report that

Ukraine fulfils everything; only when confronted by facts do they admit that

there are problems. That’s why we need gender research – to build concrete

arguments for politicians’. Indeed, as recognized in more general GM litera-

ture, one of the biggest challenges to GM lies in the danger of its co-optation

by mainstream policy-makers,72 and one of the reasons for GM’s ineffective-

ness is bureaucracies’ over-focus on indicators rather than the tangible results

of real equality.73 This fear of the co-optation and formalization of GM is

especially relevant in the post-communist development context, where offi-

cials try maintaining a positive image in front of Western partners while

engaging in a lasting tradition of false reporting – a legacy of the socialist

system. According to the respondents, improved monitoring would include,

for instance, ‘gender analysis of work done by all ministries’ (university

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professor), and ‘more developed and credible statistics’ (a researcher); for

such statistics to be produced ‘we must think what markers can be used to

evaluate the situation’ (university instructor).

Indeed, significant data gaps that remain impede understanding gender

dynamics and taking action on gender inequities. A researcher asserted:

‘Only when you give them – politicians and bureaucrats – concrete examples

about male mortality, the number of women of childbearing age abroad – only

then do they recognize its importance’. National statistics ‘provide decision-

makers with relevant facts . . . and because living conditions differ for men

and women, there is a need for these statistics to be disaggregated by gender’.74

In the case of Ukraine, respondents emphasized that ‘gender is not only

about subsidies and protection of mothers’ (NGO director) and that ‘there

are men’s problems in gender as well’ (NGO employee).75 As expressed by

a state official, ‘men are ashamed to report their problems; maybe men’s

matters are even more complicated than women’s in practice’. The need to

address men’s concerns explicitly in Ukraine through the mechanism of

GM was described as critical and pressing. Respondents noted that within

‘foreign’ frameworks of GM there is too much focus on women and even

resistance to extending GM to men, even though ‘it is now men who are

more discriminated against, there is more unemployment among men, more

sickness, reduced quality of life and life expectancy’ (researcher). In terms

of health, this is certainly the case.76 The average life expectancy of men is

ten years less than women’s and this has been identified as ‘one of the most

alarming health issues in the country’.77 In line with this an NGO employee

pointed out that ‘male . . . mortality rates are now similar to wartime’.

Similarly, a university professor noted that ‘the death rate among men is

three times higher than among women’s in the 28–40 age group’. The

gender difference in mortality rates is a specific problem in Ukraine that

any effective GM effort has to acknowledge and address.

Finally, it was emphasized that the key to improving GM work in Ukraine

is to connect the work of the state and NGOs : ‘There is a need of co-operation

between the state that now has to work on gender and the NGOs that know

how’ (state official). Some scholars have argued, for example, that the

transformative potential of GM can be realized only when advocacy coalitions

have the opportunity to set policy agendas that incorporate the representation

of their interests78 and, indeed, the specificities of their nation-states.

In Ukraine this is a challenge owing to the current weaknesses and fragmenta-

tion within women’s and equality-seeking organizations and because, as

Galligan and her associates argue,

women in post-socialist Europe are very rarely involved from the outset

in shaping the GM agenda in their countries. Instead, GM initiatives that

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have been put on the agenda have come from a government decision,

usually promoted by the need to comply with EU and international

requirements.79

The need for active participation from the civil sector is essential because

GM strategies that fail to account for the differences in societal and political

contexts of developed and transitional countries run the risk of falling short of

any type of transformative change. At the same time, as an NGO representa-

tive expressed it, ‘We can’t expect the results from GM overnight. What was

established for thousands of years cannot be changed in a blink of an eye’.

Conclusions

The findings of this study contribute to filling the gap in evaluating the

implementation of gender equality instruments in Ukraine. In particular, the

research provides insights for assessing the application and applicability of

GM in transition countries, which differ from developed countries because

of their ‘distinct histories, cultures, languages and identities . . . and also

experiences of communism’.80 While before 1995 the discussion of gender

was unheard of in Ukraine, today the government can boast numerous

legislative documents that target improving the status of women as well as

developing gender equality for both men and women.

Nevertheless, the general situation is far from ideal. The major stronghold

of resistance to gender equality is related to patriarchal social values and

stereotypes that are reflected in the attitudes and actions of power-holders.

These social perceptions are perpetuated by the supposedly emancipating

institutions such as the educational system and the mass media. While not

anti-women, these values are glorifying the berehynia version of a woman

at the cost of alternative scenarios of social self-realization. Significantly,

women themselves share such patriarchal norms and rarely realize the need

for change. In line with this situation in the wider society, gender research

is marginalized in Ukraine. Similarly, women’s and gender organizations

are disunited and do not represent a coherent force capable of effective

actions. Finally, the national machinery for gender issues undergoes frequent

structural changes and suffers chronic lack of funding, which results in

limiting the scope of its possible achievements.

In response to this status quo, this study’s participants proposed a number

of concrete suggestions for moving forward. Significantly, the need to create a

GM strategy more appropriate to the Ukrainian context was emphasized.

Gender-related practitioners on the ground reported that the practice of trans-

posing external GM approaches and concepts by international donors on to the

situation in Ukraine is problematic. Western approaches, Western terminology

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and Western modes of work with both officials and the affected populations

are not considered effective for Ukraine. This is far from saying that GM in

principle is inapplicable in the country. It is clear, however, that the strategic

goal of GM can be better achieved in a different – more context-driven –

tactical way. So even if international organizations and actors continue to

figure prominently in the development of GM in Ukraine, different types of

partnerships would need to be developed that would allow existing and

emergent multi-sectoral experts in Ukraine to take the lead in the design of

a Ukrainian GM strategy and in the capacity-building activities relating to

this policy strategy.

This type of approach to GM work would then need to be applied to the

priority areas of concentration and reform that the study’s respondents high-

lighted, beginning with a massive educational campaign targeting various

social groups, such as state officials, educators and the media, as well as

aiming at the general public. It would then need to be explored in terms of

strengthening the implementation and monitoring of gender equality legis-

lation and concomitant documents and for developing additional resources

for integrating gender into all areas of public policy. However, regardless of

the specific areas that would be targeted to achieve transformative change,

the most important factor would be to ensure that external pressures to trans-

late and apply GM mechanisms and policies developed elsewhere are resisted

and replaced by approaches that engage a full range of diverse local actors and

country sectors, and are sensitive and responsive to Ukraine’s socio-historical

context, including specific norms and assumptions regarding language, gender

roles and stereotypes.

NOTES

1. Oksana Kisselyova and Iryna Trokhym, A Gender Analysis of EU Development Instrumentsand Policies in Ukraine (report) (Network of East–West Women, Gender Watch, 2007).

2. UN Economic and Social Council, July 1997.3. ESCAP, Putting Gender Mainstreaming into Practice (New York: United Nations, 2003),

p.iii, available at ,http://www.unescap.org/ESID/GAD/Publication/Gender-Mainstreaming.PDF., accessed 20 Nov. 2009; Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issuesand Advancement of Women (OSAGI), UN Department of Economic and SocialAffairs, ‘Gender Mainstreaming’, available at: ,http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/gendermainstreaming.htm., accessed 20 Nov. 2009.

4. Fiona Beveridge and Sue Nott, ‘Mainstreaming: A Case for Optimism and Cynicism’,Feminist Legal Studies, Vol.10, No.3 (2002), pp.299–331; M. Daly, ‘Gender Mainstreamingin Theory and Practice’, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society,Vol.12, No.3 (2005), pp.433–50; Emilie M. Hafner-Burton and Mark A. Pollack, ‘Main-streaming Gender in Global Governance’, European Journal of International Relations,Vol.8, No.2 (2002), pp.339–73; Mark A. Pollack and Emilie Hafner-Burton, ‘MainstreamingGender in the European Union’, European Journal of Public Policy, Vol.7, No.3 (2000),pp.432–56; T. Rees, ‘The Politics of “Mainstreaming” Gender Equality’, inE. Breitenbach, A. Brown, F. Mackay and J. Webb, The Changing Politics of Gender Equality

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in Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002), pp.45–69; J. Shaw, ‘Mainstreaming Equality andDiversity in European Union Law and Policy’, Current Legal Problems, Vol.58 (2005),pp.255–32; J. Squires, ‘Is Mainstreaming Transformative? Theorizing Mainstreaming inthe Context of Diversity and Deliberation’, Social Politics, Vol.12, No.3 (2005), pp.366–88; J. Veitch, ‘Looking at Gender Mainstreaming in the UK Government’, InternationalFeminist Journal of Politics, Vol.7, No.4 (2005), pp.600–6; Sylvia Walby, ‘GenderMainstreaming: Productive Tensions in Theory and Practice’, Social Politics, Vol.12, No.3(2005), pp.321–43; Alison Woodward, ‘Too Late for Gender Mainstreaming? TakingStock in Brussels’, Journal of European Policy, Vol.18, No.3 (2008), pp.289–302.

5. Olena Hankivsky, ‘Gender vs. Diversity Mainstreaming: A Preliminary Examination of theRole and Transformative Potential of Feminist Theory’, Canadian Journal of PoliticalScience, Vol.38, No.4 (2005), pp.977–1001; Marie Powell, ‘A Rights-Based Approach toGender Equality and Women’s Rights’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, specialissue, Vol.26 (2005), pp.605–17.

6. Alison Woodward, ‘European Gender Mainstreaming: Promises and Pitfalls of Transforma-tive Policy’, Review of Policy Research, Vol.20, No.1 (2003), pp.65–88; Christine Boothand Cinnamon Bennett, ‘Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union: Towards a New Con-ception and Practice of Equal Opportunities?’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol.9,No.4 (2002), pp.430–46; Sonia Mazey, ‘Gender Mainstreaming Strategies in the EU: Deliver-ing on an Agenda?’, Feminist Legal Studies, Vol.10, No.3 (2002), pp.227–40; GemmaCarney, ‘Communicating or Just Talking? Gender Mainstreaming and the Communicationof Global Feminism’, Women and Language, Vol.26, No.1 (2003), pp.52–60.

7. Yvonne Galligan, Sara Clavero and Marina Calloni, Gender Politics and Democracy in Post-socialist Europe (Farmington Hills, MI: Barbara Burdich Press, 2007).

8. Julie Hemmet, Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid and NGOs (Bloomington, IN:Indiana University Press, 2007), pp. 69, 71–2.

9. Olena Hankivsky, ‘Gender, Globalization and Sex Trafficking in Ukraine’, in C. Patton andHelen Loshny (eds.), Global Science / Women’s Health (Youngstown, NY: CambrianPress, 2008), Ch.7; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Gender Issues inUkraine: Challenges and Opportunities (Kiev: UNDP, 2003).

10. Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis, p.3.11. Law of Ukraine ‘On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men’ (2005),

available at ,http://zakon.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=2866-15., accessed 23Nov. 2009; authors’ translation.

12. It is the family and youth ministry that is charged with gender policy in Ukraine.13. Alexandra Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos: Gender and Politics in Fragmented State’, Problems

of Post-Communism, Vol.52, No.5 (2005), pp.69–81 (p.70).14. Janet Elise Johnson, Domestic Violence Politics in Post-Soviet States (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2007).15. Hrycak, ‘The Dilemmas of Civic Revival: Ukrainian Women Since Independence’, Journal of

Ukrainian Studies, Vol.26, No. 1–2 (2001), pp.135–58 (p.147).16. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’.17. The concept of berehynia entails a traditional Ukrainian woman taking care of her house and

family: feeding, clothing, and emotionally satisfying. She is a domesticated source of beauty,order and well-being. Originally berehynia was a pagan Slavic goddess of earth and fertility,but later she also transformed into a domestic Madonna and a guardian of family and nation:see Joanna Hubbs, Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture (Bloomington, IN:Indiana University Press, 1988), pp.14–15. Thus berehynia represents a ‘pagan goddessconjoined with the Virgin Mary’: Marian Rubchak, ‘Christian Virgin or Pagan Goddess:Feminism Versus the Eternally Feminine in Ukraine’, in Rosalind Marsh (ed.), Women inRussia and Ukraine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). Today berehynia isthe ‘main symbol of Ukrainian rural culture’ and ‘the centre of the idyllic world of the lostand adored’: Solomea Pavlychko, ‘Between Feminism and Nationalism: New Women’sGroups in Ukraine’, in Mary Buckley (ed.), Perestroika and Soviet Women (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.82–96 (p.91).

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18. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.72.19. Rubchak, ‘Christian Virgin or Pagan Goddess’, p.317.20. WWICS (Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars), ‘Women’s NGOs in

Ukraine and End of Western Aid’, Kennan Institute U.S. Alumni Series No.14, June 2007(Washington, DC: Kennen Institute, 2007), p.1, at ,http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event_summary&event_id=237920., accessed 27 May 2010.

21. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.73.22. Ibid., p.78.23. Ibid., p.81, n.33.24. This made the Ukrainian Constitution one of the first in the world to contain such a provision

according to Catherine Gander and Larysa Magdyuk, in Ukraine Gender Equality Review,report prepared for CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency), Sept. 2006, p.37.

25. Ukaz Prezydenta Ukrayiny ‘Pro Pidvyschennia Sotsialnoho Statusu Zhinok v Ukrayini’[Decree of the President of Ukraine ‘On Improving the Social Status of Women inUkraine’], 5 April 2001.

26. Gander and Magdyuk, Ukraine Gender Equality Review, pp. 37–38.27. Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Decree of 5 July 2006 # 384-r, ‘On Approving the Concept

of the State Programme on Establishing Gender Equality in the Ukrainian Society for theYears 2006–2010’, available at ,http://zakon1.rada.gov.ua/cgi-bin/laws/main.cgi?nreg=384-2006-%F0., accessed 23 Nov. 2009.

28. The move to post-maternalism is a progressive step that departs from the Soviet maternalistperspective that saw women as solely or primarily mothers and defined their needs throughthe needs of their children and the factors that influence women’s reproductive function.Post-maternalist perspective, by contrast, understands women’s needs in a broader wayincluding political, economic, cultural and other needs, not necessarily connected to child-bearing.

29. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.78.30. For further discussion of parliamentary hearings on gender issues in Ukraine see M. Rubchak,

‘Discourses of Continuity and Change’, in Olena Hankivsky and Anastasiya Salnykova (eds.),Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, forthcoming).

31. For a full account of the signed documents see Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis,p.4.

32. Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis, p.5.33. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.79.34. Gander and Magdyuk, Ukraine Gender Equality Review, p.39.35. J. True and M. Minstrom, ‘Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Case of Gender

Mainstreaming’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol.45, No.1 (2001), pp.27–57.36. Oksana Kisselyova, ‘Institutional Mechanisms of Ensuring Gender Equality in Ukraine in the

Context of European Integration’, in Women and Politics in Ukraine: Benefiting fromInternational Experience (Kyiv: Atika, 2006), pp.154–71 (p.155).

37. Personal communication from Mr Plotyan, Aug. 2006.38. T. Einarsdottir, ‘Challenging the Slow Motion of Gender Equality – The Case of Iceland’,

paper presented to the 5th European Feminist Research Conference, Lund University,Sweden, 2003.

39. O. Pyshchulina, ‘An Evaluation of Ukrainian Legislation to Counter and Criminalize HumanTrafficking’, in S. Stoecker and L. Shelley (eds.), Human Trafficking and TransnationalCrime: Eurasian and American Perspectives (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004),pp.115–24.

40. Hankivsky, ‘Gender, Globalization and Sex Trafficking’, and Irina Predborska, ‘The SocialPosition of Young Women in Present-day Ukraine’, Journal of Youth Studies, Vol.8, No.3,pp.349–62.

41. W.C. Cockerham, B.P. Hinote, G.B. Cockerham and P. Abbott, ‘Health Lifestyles andPolitical Ideology in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine’, Social Science & Medicine, Vol.62,No.1 (2006), pp.799–809.

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42. Oksana Yakushko, ‘Ambivalent Sexism and Relationship Patterns among Women and Menin Ukraine’, Sex Roles, Vol.52, Nos.9–10 (2005), pp.589–96; Predborska, ‘The SocialPosition’, p.363.

43. Yakushko, ‘Ambivalent Sexism’.44. This quotation was originally taken from the news report on the presidential web-site. Unfor-

tunately, the link to the exact quote is no longer available, although a similar and morerecent statement can be accessed at ,http://en.for-ua.com/news/2007/03/05/132530.html.,accessed 27 May 2010.

45. Predborska, ‘The Social Position’.46. UNDP, Gender Issues in Ukraine, p.84.47. Mariya Shymchyshyn, ‘Ideology and Women’s Studies Programmes in Ukraine’, NWSA

Journal, Vol.17, No.3 (2005), pp.173–85 (p.173).48. See an in-depth gender content-analysis of Ukrainian school textbooks in Elena Semikole-

nova, ‘Gender Expertise of School Textbooks in Ukraine’, in Hankivsky and Salnykova(eds.), Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine (forthcoming).

49. UNDP, Gender Issues in Ukraine.50. This number used to be more than 1,200 according to O. Sydorenko, ‘Zhinochi Organizatsiyi

Ukrayiny: Dovidnyk’ [Women’s organizations of Ukraine: a guide] (Kyiv: Tsentr Innovatsiyita Rozvytku, 2001).

51. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.72.52. Hrycak, ‘Foundation Feminism’, p.97.53. Ibid., p.85.54. Johnson, Domestic Violence Politics in Post-Soviet States.55. WWICS, ‘Women’s NGOs in Ukraine’.56. Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis, p.6.57. For further discussion of institutional restructuring before 2002 see Hrycak, ‘Coping with

Chaos’, p.77, Table 1.58. Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis, p.8.59. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.74.60. International Center for Policy Studies (ICPS), ‘How to Ensure Gender Equality in Politics’,

International Center for Policy Studies Newsletter, No.17 (364), 21 May 2007, p.2.61. Hrycak, ‘Gender and the Orange Revolution’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition

Politics, Vol.23, No.1 (2007), pp.152–79 (pp.153, 175).62. ‘Yanukovych rejects debate, says Tymoshenko can show off in kitchen’, RiaNovosti,

available at ,http://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20100120/157628829.html., accessed 27 May 2010.63. ‘Ukrainian women berate “Neanderthal” PM for sexist remarks’, reported in The Guardian,

available at ,http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/24/ukraine-mykola-azarov-women., accessed 27 May 2010.

64. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, p.75.65. Hrycak, ‘The Dilemmas of Civil Revival’, p.141.66. UNDP, Gender Issues in Ukraine.67. For further discussion of mechanisms of increasing women’s representation in Ukraine see

A. Salnykova, ‘Electoral Reforms and Women’s Representation in Ukraine’, in Hankivskyand Salnykova (eds.), Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine (forthcoming).

68. Kisselyova and Trokhym, A Gender Analysis, p.3.69. ICPS, ‘How to Ensure Gender Equality in Politics’, p.2.70. Zhinochka is the equivalent to ‘wifey’: a diminutive of wife or ‘little woman’.71. Hrycak, ‘Coping with Chaos’, and Hrycak, ‘The Dilemmas of Civil Revival’.72. Carney, ‘Communicating or Just Talking?’73. For further discussion of men’s issues in Ukraine see T. Bureychak, ‘Men’s Issues in

Ukraine’; I.Koshulap, ‘Cash and/or Care: Current Discourses and Practices of Fatherhoodin Ukraine’; and A. Riabchuk, ‘Homeless Men and Masculinity Crisis in ContemporaryUkraine’, all in Hankivsky and Salnykova (eds.), Gender, Politics and Society in Ukraine(forthcoming).

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74. Lynne Phillips, ‘Gender Mainstreaming: The Global Governance of Women?’, CanadianJournal of Development Studies, special issue, Vol.26 (2005), pp.651–63.

75. For further discussion of men’s health issues in Ukraine see O. Hankivsky, ‘Gender andHealth in Ukraine’, in Hankivsky and Salnykova (eds.), Gender, Politics and Society inUkraine (forthcoming).

76. UNDP, Gender Issues in Ukraine, p.84.77. Ibid., p.70.78. Rounaq Jahan, The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development (New York: Zed

Books, 1995).79. Galligan et al., Gender Politics and Democracy, p.120.80. Ibid., p.13.

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