Scientific investigations of gender aspects of the position of women in times of danger and leadership

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Ukrainian State University of Mykhailo Drahomanov

Scientific investigations of gender aspects of the position of women in times of danger and leadership

Hryniuk T.

Shchabelska V.

Bulycheva T.

Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Tourism

Introduction

gender equality threat war

Discussions about gender equality in the 21st century are becoming particularly acute and require an adequate response from both civil society and the institutional system and authorities of any civilized state. Such a discourse raises the need for research on the synergistic development of the categories "gender", "leadership", "women's leadership", "public initiatives", "equality", etc. Scientific studies of modern problems of social development from geospatial positions, according to existing world trends, have signs of inclusiveness. The interdisciplinary scientific plane is formed by research directions that respond in a timely manner to the new needs of society and the challenges of the times. These include the study of gender aspects of the development of society in the conditions of the growing influence of external and internal threats of COVID-19, political instability, and war. Ensuring gender equality in all spheres of public life is an integral element of the formation of Ukraine as a state that adheres to democratic principles and respects human rights. Equality of rights between women and men is one of the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter. The formation and improvement of society's understanding of the tasks of state policy in the direction of gender equality contributes to the achievement of the Global Sustainable Development Goals, announced by the UN (UN General Assembly Resolution No. 70/1 of September 25, 2015) and supported by Ukraine in accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine of September 30, 2019 No. 722 "On the Sustainable Development Goals of Ukraine for the period until 2030" [4,6]. Equal rights of women and men are also enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. At the same time, against the background of global and domestic dangers, gender disparities in the development and self-realization of women, access to dream professions in the labor market, free time planning (loading with secondary work), fair redistribution of economic benefits and financial rewards according to real contribution are growing.

Presenting main material

Traditionally, leadership was studied almost without taking gender into account, since the leadership role was a priori considered masculine. However, in recent years, in various spheres of management, political activity and business, the share of women occupying managerial positions has increased significantly. Women actively participate in the work of executive and legislative bodies, in the process of making managerial and political decisions. The quantitative advantage of women is noticeable in such fields as medicine and health care, education, social work, humanitarian sciences, culture, and the field of services and information. However, women are still a minority in politics and in middle and upper management.

More than thirty years have passed since the post-Soviet countries gained independence. At the same time, a new generation grew up with different values. During this time, Ukraine has made significant progress in matters of gender equality. However, the issue of equality is still relevant, and aspects of women's rights concern men as well, especially in the context of threats and military challenges.

Gender disparities in social development in Ukraine are caused by a number of objective demographic and socio-economic preconditions. There are signs of existing gender gaps in the demographic structure of the state's population. Their aggravation during the pandemic indicates a serious danger in the position of women, their social activity, initiative in the labor markets. The tendency of the spread of diseases among women is increasing, because their number prevails in the age group of 65+. The analysis of socio-economic gaps represents that in the conditions of the economic crisis caused by the introduction of restrictive measures, women become more vulnerable compared to men. They are the majority of those who work in the branches of the budgetary sphere, the financing of which can be significantly reduced in the conditions of budget savings. The wage gap between women and men is 22.8%. This leads to a gap in pension provision - 30% [2,5]. Consequently, women have limited opportunities to save and accumulate, which leads to their vulnerability during economic crises.

In some regions, efforts are being made to take into account the needs of certain vulnerable population groups. These are positive examples of Dnipropetrovsk Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Ternopil, Kherson regions and the city of Kyiv. For the most part, they are aimed at protecting and providing assistance to medical workers, the elderly, and low-income sections of the population, among whom the largest share is women. Among the recipients of social services and social assistance, the share of women is about 67%, and in times of crisis, social protection measures and individual social services may also be reduced. This proves the "sensitivity" and acuteness of the issue and formulates a number of tasks for modern Ukrainian society to improve the situation.

According to the existing threats of socio-economic impact and the spread of the pandemic, the consequences for women, the outbreak of COVID-19 "exacerbates existing inequalities, exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems, which in turn exacerbates the consequences of the pandemic" [4]. Operational gender assessment of the situation and needs of women in the context of the COVID-19 situation in Ukraine is periodically conducted with the support of international organizations, in particular, the United Nations Division on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women). The purpose of such contextual studies is to provide the results of gender observations in social development regarding differentiated needs and the impact of the spread of threats (pandemics) on the lives of women in Ukraine. First of all, this applies to those categories of the population that represent vulnerable groups and face multiple forms of discrimination. This logic of action following the consequences of the 2020 crisis will contribute to the empowerment of women, in particular in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

For Ukraine, it is also relevant to take into account the existing world experience and the results of scientific research and projects devoted to the mentioned problems. Ukraine's progress on this path is significant, even despite the complications of wartime. In particular, in the summer of 2022, the government approved the State Strategy for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men for the period until 2030, and in December 2022, it approved the Strategy for implementing gender equality in the field of education until 2030. At the end of January 2023, Decree No. 79 was adopted, which approved the long-awaited Action Plan for the implementation of the Communication Concept in the field of gender equality [1, 2, 3]. In 2022, the world ranking of the WEF Global Gender Gap Report, which is based on economic and educational opportunities for realization, health and livelihood, as well as the expansion of rights and opportunities in politics, placed Ukraine in 81st position out of 156 presented. A year earlier,

Ukraine took 74th place, thus losing 7 positions in the rating. Such a drop in the rating is not accidental, it is caused by a full-scale invasion that has made it difficult to advance in various aspects of social life. Among the countries of the world, Iceland, Finland, and Norway took the lead in the rating, and the most difficult situation with the gender gap occurred in Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan, which were traditionally noted in previous years as well. In this rating, Ukraine took the highest position (27) in the "Implementation in education" category. On the other hand, according to indicators of economic participation and health care -- 44 and 41 positions, respectively, and according to the indicator in the field of expanding rights and opportunities in politics -- in 103 place. Research has shown that if gender equality is guaranteed in the field of health care, women will receive better quality care, which will lead to an improvement in the general health of society, its activities in various areas of the public sector, etc.

There is also a low level of involvement of women in the public and political sphere, and accordingly, an insignificant share of female leaders, which is caused by gender inequality. What is gender, gender stereotypes and what are the characteristics of female leadership.

"Gender" - in the English language, two words are used to denote a person's sex: "sex" and "gender". The first of these words means a person's gender as a sexual-biological characteristic. The second is gender as a system of sex-role relations. In Ukrainian, by analogy, we use the words "sex" and "gender". If sex refers to the physical, bodily differences between a man and a woman, then the concept of "gender" refers to their psychological, social and cultural characteristics. Literally, the term "gender" means "social sex". Whatever human society is, it consists of the two largest categories of people - men and women. In the culture of every society there are norms, models of behavior, traditions, ideas about what men and women should be, what social roles they should play. Only a few roles are biologically determined: pregnant woman, mother, nurse, daughter, wife, grandmother - for women and genetic father, husband, son - for men. The rest of the social roles are determined mainly by socio-cultural meanings and characteristics.

Helpful in this regard, an American study by Joanne Pepin, Ph.D. (https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v7-2-36/) shows that people still believe that women are better at taking care of children and running the household than men. At the same time, there are scientific sociological facts that refute this. Most studies prove with their results that the quality of work performed by women or men does not differ. And that men's perception of how dirty a room is is almost the same as women's perception of that room. Moreover, studies have shown that today's young people show a greater openness to different scenarios of the division of labor regarding their future as parents. In connection with the spread of gender stereotypes and sexism, there are problems of self-realization of women and men. Women have a "fear of success", when, for example, intelligent and capable girls seek to unconsciously appear helpless and less intelligent, so that they do not cease to be considered "real" women. In men, it is a "fear of failure", especially in a professional career, in the desire to be "real" men [4].

Gender disparity in the political and managerial spheres is explained by J. Bowman and S. Sutton because people, both in organizations and in private life, make different demands on leaders of different sexes. In relation to women, these requirements are as follows: in order to obtain a managerial position, a woman must demonstrate much greater competence.

An example of state leadership in different regions of the world is interesting, which is indicative. Yes, Latin America and the Caribbean are no strangers to the participation and growth of women as leaders around the world. Thus, until May 2014, there were four female presidents in the following countries: Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Costa Rica. This trend is also observed in the private sector, where the number of women in management positions is increasing. Betina Rama, a specialist consultant and author of Liderazgo Femenino ("Women's Leadership"), notes that in general, women in Latin America and the Caribbean are experts in managing crises and adapting to change. "...This is a positive result of the economic and political situation we have experienced. The ability to manage change and tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity is critical to the success of any enterprise," author Betina Rama notes in her book [5].

At the same time, Amalia Vanoli, director of the consulting firm Tiempo Real, which specializes in human resources, believes that female managers have a higher emotional intelligence; they create good work teams where they motivate without losing results. "Today, some organizations prefer women for certain positions. In general, these are companies that have experienced the benefits of female leadership and have strong internal policies to support gender diversity,” she adds. Women's leadership is needed in teams, organizations and society: everyone benefits from it. This is why we need leaders of both sexes to complement each other [8]. Here are some traits that define female leadership:

People-Oriented: They are communicative, expressive and establish strong bonds, strengthening the ability to achieve commitments, whether they are company goals or a specific project.

Collaboration: making teamwork more natural by actively involving and restraining people. They also ensure that the procedures are carried out in an orderly and high-quality manner.

Ability to act in different directions: They have an innate ability to think and act in different directions at the same time. This gives an advantage when making decisions and facing crises.

Horizontal leadership: Women's leadership is inclusive, encourages participation, and shares information and power with those she leads. It tends to create and strengthen group identity.

Emotional openness: They tend to be able to consider the "human" side of people and show a high level of empathy.

More prone to change: their style is innovative and has a strong sense of quality, people-oriented, flexible, communicative and persuasive [7].

Today's organizations are more interconnected because change happens faster than before. That's why “we're looking for characteristics like collaboration, empathy, sensitivity and consensus, which are more about the feminine side. In general, women are more involved in finding the best solutions in the work team," says author Rama in his book. According to the researchers, when women take on a leadership role, they experiment with changes in their behavior: some of their unique traits are enhanced; traits that were not part of their character before become stronger; they have faster discernment and accuracy in decision-making. Social observations note an interesting regularity: when women get the opportunity to lead or become the head of a team, they perceive it as a real challenge and fully focus on the project in progress [6, 8].

Conclusions

The presence of structural disparities and gender gaps in the field of employment, which deepen during the economic crisis, the consequences of COVID-19 and the war, can contribute to the deepening of poverty, limited access to resources and services, and social insecurity of women. The result should be the formation of gender-oriented public measures of the state for the purpose of prevention and response by all interested parties at the national, regional and local levels.

The trend of attracting women to management positions is growing rapidly in Ukraine as well. In particular, preference will be given to women in all areas of the public sector, in politics in the near future. In the meantime, women respond to the challenges and threats of war on an equal footing with men, take on the burden of physical labor, military volunteerism, and military service. Ukraine is going through its own unique path of development and entrenchment of gender equality. This path is based on many years of work of the women's movement, thanks to which important legislative changes were introduced, which created more opportunities for women to realize themselves.

The full-scale war that Russia launched against Ukraine highlighted new challenges, which the women's movement adequately copes with, developing new rules and norms. At the same time, women's leadership in all decision-making processes becomes effective and systematic. Therefore, this experience can and should become valuable and useful for the international community, as it is unique in the conditions of wartime and civilizational challenges.

References

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