Gender policy in Ukraine: major achievements and key challenges

Summary

The article analyses content and features of gender policy in Ukraine, reviewing major achievements in the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women's rights. Despite different achievements, the article underlines main problems in the realm of ensuring gender equality and empowerment of men and women. At the end, the article highlights several recommendations and priority actions that will allow Ukraine to eliminate gender imbalances, ensure equal participation of women and men in making socially important decisions (primarily through election to representative bodies and appointments to government posts), provide equal opportunities for women and men to reconcile professional and family responsibilities, to prevent gender violence and discrimination, etc.

Key words: gender, gender equality, gender policy, gender discrimination, equal rights and opportunities.

Анотація

ГЕНДЕРНА ПОЛІТИКА УКРАЇНИ: КЛЮЧОВІ ЗДОБУТКИ ТА ОСНОВНІ ВИКЛИКИ

У статті проаналізовано зміст та особливості тендерної політики в Україні, розглянуті основні досягнення у сприянні тендерній рівності та розширенню прав жінок. Незважаючи на різні здобутки, стаття також підкреслює основні проблеми у сфері забезпечення тендерної рівності та розширення прав і можливостей чоловіків і жінок. Наприкінці статті висвітлено ключові рекомендацій та ряд пріоритетних дій, які б могли дозволити Україні усунути тендерний дисбаланс, забезпечити рівну участь жінок і чоловіків у прийнятті соціально важливих рішень (перш за все, шляхом обрання до представницьких органів та призначення на посади уряду), забезпечити рівні можливості для жінок і чоловіків у узгоджені професійних і сімейних обов'язків, запобігання гендерно зумовленому насильству і дискримінації за ознакою статі, тощо.

Ключові слова: гендер, гендернарівність, гендерна політика, гендерно-зумовлена дискримінація, рівні права та можливості.

The main text

Gender equality is one of indicators that shows how developed and democratic is the state in the XXI century. In general, the acknowledgement and promotion of gender equality is a part of a broad international strategy and a part of cultural transformation that alters the functioning of traditional societies and fosters the development of democratic institutions.

This is why it is very important to study not only theoretical perspectives of gender equality, but also to analyse a holistic approach to the complexed gender policy. This article proposes to identify major successes and key challenges in the achievements of gender equality and the empowerment of women in Ukraine. Based on the desk review of key analytical papers on Ukraine, national legal acts and world recognized gender data (The Global Gender Gap report, provided by the World Economic Forum) the article sums up key recommendations on how to improve the situation in this filed in Ukraine.

Ensuring equal opportunities for women and men, combating discrimination are important goals of cooperation with the European Union (EU), defined in the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine [1]. The agreement definitely became a new impetus for the development of gender policy in Ukraine. The Agreement, that was signed by both sides and entered into force on September 1, 2017, requires inurement of equal opportunities for women and men, combating gender stereotypes and promoting a zero tolerance against gender based violence. These are key requirements for all 28 EU member-states and all nonEU states that would like to join the Union. Ukraine is not an exception. These principles, combined with the implementation of the best EU practices, have made it possible to prepare a result-oriented State Social Program for Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men for the period up to 2021 in Ukraine (Cabinet of Ministers Decree №273, from 11 April 2018) [3]. Therefore, a lot of scientist and national politicians believe that the Association Agreement with the EU became a new impetus for the development of gender policy in Ukraine.

Ukraine has managed to achieve certain progress in the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women since its independence. One of major achievements is development of national legislative framework on gender equality, in particular the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men” (adopted in 2005) [7].

Successful development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the sector of gender equality and women empowerment keeps growing. The NGOs launch more interventions aimed both directly at women empowerment and at mainstreaming gender to other projects and states programmes. Thanks to the cooperation between the Government of Ukraine (GoU) and NGOs several amendments were introduced to the Constitution of Ukraine to ensure gender equality, the national gender mechanism was revived, and the State Programme on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men up to 2016 was approved [4].

In addition, a range of institutions responsible for the implementation of gender policy were established in the central executive bodies and regional state administrations during the last decade. In particular: different gender working groups and coordination councils; Interdepartmental Council on Family, Gender Equality, Demographic Development, Prevention of Domestic Violence and Counteracting Trafficking in Human Beings (Cabinet of Ministers); the position of the Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, Nondiscrimination and Gender Equality was introduced into the structure of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsperson); the Expert Council on the consideration of applications for gender-based discrimination facts - an advisory body acting on an ongoing basis under the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, etc. [16, p. 56-59]. But the biggest step forward was appointment of the Governmental Commissioner on Gender Equality of Ukraine in 2017. The main tasks of the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy encapsulate coordination of the work of ministries, other central and local executive bodies to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men, conducting the monitoring of the accounting by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the principle of gender equality, assistance in developing state programs on gender equality and cooperation with international organizations and civil society [2].

During 2011-2018, Ukraine managed to set up the system of prevention and combating gender-based violence too. The Law “On Combating Human Trafficking” was passed in 2011, while the Law of Ukraine “On Combating a Domestic Violence in Ukraine” was adopted in 20018 [8]. Ukraine has acceded to the Council of Europe conventions on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention) in 2007, but has not ratified it yet.

In addition to the Istanbul Convention, Ukraine has taken the key international commitments ongender equality. The country adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), joined the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action (BPfA) of the 4^th World Conference for Women (1995) and ratified key human rights treaties, including Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1980) and its Optional Protocol [9]. By Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 113-p of February 24, 2016, the National Plan of Action for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 «Women, Peace, Security» for the period until 2020 was approved too. However, the adoption of the Plan did not receive predominantly positive expert assessments for a number of reasons. The main reason was that this National plan is not mandatory, since the Order of the Cabinet of Ministers only recommends that local government, the State Judicial Administration, the Security Service ensure its implementation, but does not require its mandatory implementation.

Summarizing key achievements, made so far by Ukraine in insuring gender equlity, it is important to mentioned the newly adopted State Social Programme on Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men for the period up to 2021 [3]. The State Programme looks to strengthen the institutional mechanism for gender equality with an integrated approach to addressing the institutional barriers to gender equality.

Despite these achievements in the “de-jure” filed, the main problems in the realm of ensuring gender equality and empowerment of men and women remain persistent de-facto. Apart the accession to international treaties and development of national legislative framework on ensuring equal rights and opportunities of women and men, there is a lack of political will to advance gender transformations in practice at all levels - at the level of heads of legislative and executive authorities to the levels of local and regional bodies. The Parliament has not managed to approve any positive action necessary to balance the position of men and women in the society and especially at the level of decision making.

For example, Ukraine features a low level of women's political representation. Thus, in the Women in National Parliaments world classification Ukraine ranks 157th among 193 countries (1 January 2019), thus being the last among the Eastern Partnership countries [10]. In this regard, insufficient participation of women in politics becomes a serious challenge for democracy, as it prevents more than 50% of Ukrainian citizens from participation in decision-making and other political processes.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report for 2018, presented by the World Economic Forum, Ukraine ranks 65th in the gender equality index (in the ranking among 142 countries). The level of women political empowerment is still the lowest (105th place among 149 countries) among the other indicators like Economic participation and opportunity, Educational attainment, Health and survival) [11]. Women make up 12.1% in the Parliament; 12.5 % of the Cabinet of Ministers and 16.7% of senior governmental officials at the highest level [5]. As a result, women have limited opportunities to influence on decisions that concern their life, the life of their communities and the entire country.

Another urgent problem is a high level of gender segregation, both vertical and horizontal, at the labour market. Women's participation in the labour market remain to be quite low - 55.7% in comparison to 69.0% for men in 2017 [6]. In addition to such segregation, inequalities in economy arise from discriminatory attitudes of employers towards hiring women, setting their salary and career promotion. It provokes gender pay gap and unequal access to economic resources, as well as different quality of employment and social status of men and women. Gender wage gap comprised 25% in 2016 and 21% in 2017 reaching 40% in some economic activities [6].

One more, very important issue is viability of stereotypes about the roles of men and women in the family and society. The stereotypes are disseminated through two most powerful channels - the system of education and mass media. In addition, some antigender movements increased in Ukraine during the last few years, that disseminate unjust information and promote patriarchic values. The problem of gender stereotypes is one of the gravest, as these are stereotypes that prevent the whole society from shaping public demand for gender transformations and equal rights for women and men.

The last but not least problem is a low level of legal awareness of citizens in terms of gender discrimination. Sometimes women and men are not able to notice the manifestations of gender discrimination in family (including domestic violence), at the workplace and in society [20]. To conclude, Ukraine still faces the above mentioned and some other challenges affecting the enjoyment of equal opportunities and rights by women in general and those facing compound discrimination in particular. The root causes can be found in patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes, but also in deeply rooted systemic gaps which have not been addressed since Ukraine's independence.

These gaps include weak rule of law, low capacity of the institutional mechanisms for gender equality and lack of political will at the national level [13, p. 191]. Unfortunately, the ongoing reforms pay not enough attention to gender mainstreaming, as well as the new gender equality priorities caused by the conflict. While the conflict at the East of Ukraine and the profound security, social, economic and political crisis have deepened the already existing gender inequalities and created new challenges for protection and realisation of women's rights in Ukraine. Besides that, the conflict affects women and men disproportionally. For example, women make up 58% out of 1.7 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine. Older women account for 74% of the conflict-affected older people, including IDPs [17, p. 34].

To conclude, Ukraine has provided solutions to most of urgent gender problems and achieved most strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action, in particular through the implementation of the previous State Programme for Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men for the period until 2016 [21].

Unlike many countries, Ukrainian women have almost equal opportunities in education, access to health and social services. According to the trends of many Post-Soviet and Eastern European countries, women almost equally «fill» the labor market and the public sector. However, they are less represented in the spheres and positions with the maximum concentration of financial and power resources. Compared with European countries, Ukraine maintains a low level of gender balance in the field of political representation and leadership of state and economic processes, women are more affected by unemployment than men. Women struggle more to access labor market after maternity leave, while men do not have equal rights for paternity leave, as women have in Ukraine.

The above mentioned Global Gap Report by World Economic Forum does not indicate a catastrophic deterioration of the policy of nondiscrimination in the Ukraine. However, in the world rankings of the gender gap the results of international studies clearly demonstrate Ukraine's lagging behind the global trends and the lack of an effective gender policy, especially in contrast to other European states.

Despite the accession to international agreements and the adoption of national legislation on equal rights and opportunities for women and men, there is a need to:

- Review some aspects of legislative norms governing the electoral process, state funding of political parties, secondary education, social insurance, labor and family relations;

- adopt the Law «On the Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence» (ratify the Istanbul Convention);

- advocate for increasing the responsibility of Governments for financing interventions aimed at promotion of gender equality and women empowerment;

- develop and implement real mechanisms for integrating women's needs and gender equality into the work of state institutions and local authorities, in particular through strengthening the role of the National Agency for Public Service, etc.;

- account of specific needs of women and men when planning any state programmes and budget, at both national and regional levels, continuing efforts on mainstreaming gender into increasing the efficiency of all relevant state policies;

- create legal and practical mechanisms for the realization of women's rights, which can potentially become victims of double discrimination (women - Roma women, internally displaced persons, women of pre-retirement age, women living in rural areas, etc.), enforcing women leadership in different areas and at all levels;

- deliver interventions aimed at getting men engaged into the promotion of gender equality and combating domestic violence, gender stereotypes, etc., among the others promoting women's contribution to ensuring peace and security and fostering a culture of peace throughout the world;

- promote women's political participation - as an option through the revision of the Law of Ukraine «On Local Elections» regarding mandatory representation 30 % of the other sex in the electoral lists of political parties (so called positive actions of the 30 % quota);

Of course, all the above-mentioned recommendations are not limited to the listed proposals. Another priority, not mentioned yet, is to carry out research, develop and promote arguments about the impact of efficient gender policy on positive economic, demographic and social development. Such action can create surplus motivation for strengthening gender policies and allocating more funds for its priorities and objectives.

Increasingg accountability of the Govermnet of Ukraine for implementation gender equality into across through policies (gender mainstreaming), it is important to remember about crutial role, which belongs to NGOs. Involvement of civil society institutions in the National Mechanism for Ensuring Equal Rights for Women and Men in Respecting Women's Rights and Gender Violence Prevention, ensuring gender balance monitoring in government bodies, local government and local party structures can ensure complex approach.

All these priorities, including strong cooperation between state and non-government sector, will allow Ukraine to eliminate gender imbalances that are still persistent throughout decades and accumulate efforts in those realms where it needs, moving from de-jure status to de-facto implementation of equal rights.

References