The problem of social prevention of gender inequality in military services

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Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University

Department of Social Pedagogy and Social Work

The problem of social prevention of gender inequality in military services

Spirina T.P.

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor

Liakh T.L.

Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor

Abstract

In recent decades, significant changes in the understanding and legitimization of gender relations have taken place in Ukrainian society. Successful implementation and regulation of gender relations in society implies affirmation of the value of gender equality both in society in general and in its various institutions in particular. First of all, it's the elimination of gender discrimination, ensuring equal participation of women and men in socially important decisions. The institute of the army is no exception, because in times of social problems and military conflicts it is important to professionally integrate and to take into account the interests of those categories of citizens involved in conflict resolution and peace-building in the country. Ukrainian women along with men participated during Euromaidan protests in 2013-2014 in all activities, including in the military, forming the so-called Women Hundreds.

The gender policy of the state envisages the effective implementation of a gender approach in the life of the military to create guarantees of equal human rights and opportunities regardless of gender. Since the early 1990's Ukraine implements the concept of gender approach to the development of society, which responds to the needs of changes occurring in real socio-sexual relations and to the needs with which modern society models and designs its future. Considerable attention is paid to the implementation of gender equality by the state in all spheres of its activity in order to participate in national, political, economic, social and cultural development.

The article deals with the problem of regulation of gender relations in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The peculiarities of social prevention of gender stereotypes of servicemen have been analyzed, the causes of gender stereotypes and features of interpersonal relations have been identified.

Key words: female serviceman, gender policy, gender inequality, gender stereotypes, state, social prevention.

Соціальна профілактика тендерної нерівності у військовослужбовців

Анотація

gender equality human right

Упродовж останніх десятиліть в українському суспільстві відбуваються суттєві зміни в осмисленні та легітимації гендерних відносин. Успішне впровадження й регулювання гендерних відносин у суспільстві передбачає утвердження цінності гендерної рівності як у суспільстві загалом, так і в різних його інституціях. Це насамперед недопущення гендерної дискримінації, забезпечення рівної участі жінок і чоловіків у прийнятті суспільно важливих рішень. Інститут армії не є винятком, адже в період соціальних проблем, військових конфліктів важливо фахово інтегрувати та враховувати інтереси тих категорій громадян і громадянок, які залучені до розв'язання конфліктів та встановлення миру в країні. Українські жінки нарівні із чоловіками брали участь у протестах під час Євромайдану 2013 2014 рр, причому в усіх видах діяльності, у тому числі мілітарній, формуючи так звані Жіночі сотні. Гендерна політика держави передбачає ефективне впровадження гендерного підходу в життєдіяльність війська для створення гарантій рівних прав і можливостей людини незалежно від її статі. Рівноправна участь жінок і чоловіків у всіх сферах життєдіяльності суспільства й держави є важливою умовою та гарантією утвердження демократії в Україні, а також запорукою її європейської інтеграції. З початку 1990-х рр. в Україні реалізується концепція гендерного підходу до розвитку суспільства, що відповідає потребам змін, які відбуваються в реальних соціально-статевих відносинах, і тим потребам, з якими сучасне суспільство моделює та проектує своє майбутнє. Значна увага приділяється дотриманню державою гендерної рівності в усіх сферах її діяльності для участі в національному, політичному, економічному, соціальному й культурному розвитку.

У статті розглядається проблема регулювання гендерних відносин у Збройних Силах України. Проаналізовано особливості соціальної профілактики гендерних стереотипів військовослужбовців, визначено причини виникнення гендерних стереотипів та особливості міжособистісних стосунків. Ключові слова: жінки-військовослужбовці, гендерна політика, гендерна нерівність, гендерні стереотипи, держава, соціальна профілактика.

Introduction

At the national level, gender equality is guaranteed, above all, by the Constitution of Ukraine, the Labor Code of Ukraine along with separate Law of Ukraine “On Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men” (2005), the State Social Programme on Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men for the period up to 2021 and other legislative acts.

Promoting the value of gender parity, preventing gender discrimination both in society in general and in its various institutions in particular, implies changes in the understanding and regulation of gender relations. Gender policy in the Armed Forces of Ukraine considering military cultural traditions and stereotypes, regulates the processes of development of social interaction of servicemen, improvement and development of their social statuses and relations and is a component of the general gender policy of the state. The involvement of women in military service as full-fledged subjects of military activity is a specific part of the objective process of feminization of society, and is expressed by the growing role and influence of women in the military forces.

Analysis of recent researches and publications

Issues of gender equality in the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been actively studied only since the early 1990s. For the first time socio-cultural gender roles discrepancy was investigated in the studies of E. Afonin. Various aspects of the problems of army officers, soldiers and sergeants of the military services were studied by V. Galeyev, O. Mazuryk, A. Pronoza, A. Solnishkin, and Y. Yaremenko. Modern theories of research into the social phenomenon of gender stereotype were analyzed by O. Vilkova, defining its nature and mechanisms of origin and functioning, and setting the criteria for determining gender stereotype. The gender aspect of professional socialization of a female serviceman in the Armed Forces was explored by J. Herbach. I. Krivtsov devoted her research to the transformation of gender contract based on the example of families of servicemen, I. Kovalchuk studied the motives of professional activity of women military, N. Shumakevich studied the gender relations of servicemen through their status positions in the military environment.

Previously unsettled problem constituent.

Equal participation of women and men in all spheres of society and the state is an important condition and guarantee for the consolidation of democracy in Ukraine and the key of European integration. The gender policy of the state is a social activity aimed at establishing equality between men and women in all spheres of life. Today, women actively realize their potential in all areas of social activity, including the protection of the state. The Armed Forces of Ukraine have traditionally been the most conservative social institution regarding issue of women serving in military service. Since 2016 the number of female servicemen has increased by 5,8% of the total number of admitted. In total, there are about 49 552 military women, including 2 540 officers. More than 2 000 women are recognized as participants in combat operations [9].

The aim of the article

The feminization of the armed forces has prompted a debate on the status of women in the military and, accordingly, raised the scientific need to re-evaluate former ideas about the place of women and their role. Despite this, there is virtually no work devoted to a comprehensive study of the formation and development of gender policy in the military services of Ukraine.

Results

For the first time in the world, women, on an equal footing with men, were able to become full military personnel without any professional restrictions and with the appropriate status in Canada in 1895. In Ukraine, the first examples, albeit inconsistent, of the establishment of gender equality in society, including the protection of the Motherland and its constitutional consolidation, were given by the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 [5].

The most notable in this respect is the “Basic State Law of Ukrainian People's Republic”, in particular, article number 50 on military service in the Ukrainian state about the procedure of admitting women to serve the purpose of national defense is defined by law. This is a unique document in the Ukrainian constitutional process because, at that time, no other state in the world had a provision on the possibility of recruiting women for military service aimed at protecting the homeland.

Due to the global increase in the capacity of women to be represented in the military structures, the need for women to join NATO has increased. One of the first steps towards women's integration into NATO was to develop an equal opportunity policy, to deal with discrimination and harassment. Back in 1961, NATO's senior officers organized a conference to discuss the situation with the integration of women in the armed forces of the Alliance. In 1976 such structure as the Committee on Women in the NATO Forces was formed, which in 2009 was renamed the NATO Committee on Gender. In accordance with the Security Council Resolution (2000) the importance of changing the vision of the role of women, not only as victims of conflict, but also as participants in conflict resolution and peace-building along with men is emphasized [2].

In line with the Millennium Development Goals set at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000, Ukraine has also identified “gender equality” as one of its six goals. Another important commitment of Ukraine is regarding the ratification of major international documents on women rights - the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. The results of the previous State and Alternative Reports on the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination in Ukraine indicate that the issue of equal rights and opportunities for men and women in Ukraine is controversial. On the one hand, “real steps have been taken in Ukraine to create a mechanism for the protection of women's rights and freedoms in accordance with general international human rights standards”. On the other hand, “there has not yet been a change in ideology in the country regarding the issue of gender status in society in line with the world trends in this issue” [3].

On December 5, 2017, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine at the first reading by simple majority adopted the Draft Law “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men during their Military Service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Other Military Units”. The bill is aimed at ensuring gender equality in the military. The transition of Ukraine's Armed Forces to Manning on a Contract Basis cannot be done without broad involvement of women in military services [6].

Yet, today in most countries, the majority of the armed forces is dominated by men. This is due to stereotypes about the roles of men and women in society [7]. Men are perceived as protectors of women and children responsible for the financial support of the family.

Women, on the other hand, are perceived as vulnerable beings in need of male protection and responsible for the household and upbringing of children.

Most arguments based on the fact that women are physically weaker and do not operate effectively under combat conditions. However this idea is wrong, because the objective data of various studies claim that those physical achievements that were a record for men 10-20 years ago are currently accessible to women [8]. Therefore, with equal training and equal treatment of women and men, they perform their duties as effectively as men. Considering the changing nature of modern combat operations, the number of muscles does not play a significant role, and therefore, gender should not be the major factor in determining the roles of men and women in the military structures [7]. The main positive aspects of women in military according to their colleagues are responsibility for the task, great work capacity, internal self-discipline, professionalism.

Their presence significantly improves the moral and psychological atmosphere in military teams, causes commanders and chiefs to be more restrained, and, most importantly, enhances the culture of relationships between servicemen within the team. The proportion of violations of military discipline by women is minimal.

The right of female servicemen to exercise their career choices and opportunities to realize themselves in military service in accordance with their professional and educational background is implemented. The effectiveness of the social selfrealization of a female serviceman depends on woman's intrinsic desire to realize herself in this field and to take appropriate action to achieve her goal. The feature of present is that female serviceman acquire military specialty, seemingly not typical to women and realize their potential in traditionally “female” military positions of lawyers, doctors, operators, political scientists, psychologists and others. Thus, 41% of women in military with technical education, 23% with humanitarian education, 16% with economics and 20% with other educational background have found application of their knowledge, skills and abilities [4].

It is forbidden to assign women only for positions that involve work with toxic substances, explosives, weapons and means of radiation, chemical and biological protection; to positions related to direct firefighting, diving operations and some others.

Gender interaction is an important characteristic of social relations, work and personal and professional development, which is closely connected with the general psychological personality development, mental health indicators, conditions of unity of personal manifestations. The current state of Ukrainian army, in its turn, is the socio-cultural and professional environment in which a woman or a man positions himself or herself in different ways: as a professional, a person, an employee, a member of the team and so on. For successful cooperation in the military environment, it will be appropriate to consider such issues as gender discrimination; prevention and social prevention among servicemen.

The content of primary prevention is the formation in society of an equal attitude to the rights and opportunities of women and men, and a negative attitude toward violent model of relationship [9].

Sexualization is one of the manifestations of gender aspects of war and violent conflict. In particular, it comes from depicting the image of a woman involved in a fight as a sexual object in times of war. Her value is reduced only to sexual attractiveness in military uniform [12]. When communicating with the media, it is important not to broadcast this image, but to pay attention to the work of female servicemen. The sexualization of war and violent conflict is manifested in different ways: prevalence of sexual violence against women and men; when the female body is compared to the battlefield; feminization of the enemy to show his weakness; accusation of men who do not participate in military operations of impotence; development of the sex industry to provide services to the military; use of sexual violence and/or threats of violence as a tool of war; manipulation of facts or sexual violence or their absence in the mass media for the purpose of information war.

The necessary work is raising awareness of safe behavior in the ATO zone, on the contact line, on the occupied territories in order to prevent situation of violence, including rape.

Secondary prevention involves the implementation of set of measures and realization of programs to reduce the spread of certain negative phenomena which occur in society, social group or at individual level, to prevent the aggravation of such phenomena and their consequences, to prevent the deepening social exclusion of people with antisocial or risky behavior. Secondary prevention measures are implemented at the level of groups of individuals with a high risk of developing gender-based violence. Such measures are a prerequisite for the activities of institutions, establishments and organizations of different forms of ownership, which, in accordance with the founding documents have responsibility to combat gender- based violence and to provide assistance to families and individuals in difficult circumstances [10].

Tertiary prevention is implemented if gender- based violence is committed and causes negative consequences to the person affected by such violence. Tertiary prevention involves the implementation of set of measures to prevent the recurrence of negative phenomena, asocial or risky behavior of persons who have had such behavior before, as well as the re-socialization of participants of problem situations and persons affected by the effects of negative phenomena and their adaptation to already existing problems with the restoration of personal and social status of such a person, family, group [1].

The main forms of organization of prevention activities are: prevention programs - a specially designed set of measures aimed at preventing of specific social problem. Prevention programs allow the full implementation of technology of integrated social prevention. Typically, the program envisages actions in different directions of prevention and involvement of different specialists in its implementation, cooperation of institutions and organizations involved in prevention of the problem; preventive measures - specially organized interaction between the performers of preventive work and the target group representatives aimed at preventing social problems or overcoming some of the factors [4].

Conclusions

Thus, it can be stated that the representation of women in defense is growing, which corresponds to the global trends of the state development. Equal opportunities for female serviceman in terms of military career are among priorities in the field of human rights. Today, in most countries of the world, there is no doubt that provided with the same training and equal treatment female servicemen are as effective as male in the performance of professional duties required by the specifics of military service.

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