Collection of English Literature on Gender Issues in Ukraine

The Ukrainian movement for LGBT+ rights is characterised not only by its struggles, but also by its achievements. Talking about the experience of transgender people, activist Inna Iryskina explains why minorities in Ukraine have their own subjectivity and agency, and how considering their experience can motivate the collective West to reassess its attitude towards Ukraine.

The author of the texts and carvings is Olena Marchyshyna.

In 2022, International Women's Day gained new implications because of the war experiences of millions of Ukrainian women.

Big changes consist of small steps. In the five years since Euromaidan, Ukraine has seen many societal transformations, including gender transformations. Feminist initiatives, new laws, and government programs summarize the main achievements of 2014-2019.

Feminism criticises war as a purely patriarchal phenomenon and the consequence of a masculine struggle for power and territory. In a perfect feminist world, there should be no wars. This text is written during the seventh year of the war that the Russian Federation has been waging against Ukraine. The article outlines and analyses the different attitudes to war among Ukrainian feminists. The position ‘war is men's toys, militarism is bad’ is very simplistic and extremely risky in the case of Ukraine, and this text aims to prove that.

What have feminists achieved in three decades of Ukrainian independence? Quite a lot indeed. Gender studies formed as a field of research and education; the women’s movement evolved from a conservative perspective on femininity to feminist political action; Ukrainian feminism developed multiple ideological schools; cooperation with the state has both pros and cons. Women’s activism is the most radical part of the emancipation process. The third and last part of Oksana Kis’ research tells about feminist street protests, open letters, informational publications, and other forms of activism.

What have feminists achieved in three decades of Ukrainian independence? Quite a lot indeed. Gender studies formed as a field of research and education; the women’s movement evolved from a conservative perspective on femininity to feminist political action; Ukrainian feminism developed multiple ideological schools and groups. For decades the state has been playing a double game—it pays lip service to gender equality, while in reality passing all responsibility to the NGO sector. The second part of Oksana Kis’ research talks about the background, threats, and prospects of cooperation between the women’s movement and the state.

The 1991 USSR collapse did not assume the end of everything Soviet. The new states inherited elements of the Soviet culture, mentality, consciousness, everyday practices and, of course, stereotypes. All this has required careful reflection and revision. Gender prejudices assimilated in the previous era are still part of our daily lives. We often reproduce them without realizing their origin. What, for example, was the female image and gender roles in the Soviet culture?

What have feminists achieved in three decades of Ukrainian independence? Quite a lot indeed. Gender studies formed as a field of research and education; the women’s movement evolved from a conservative perspective on femininity to feminist political action; Ukrainian feminism developed multiple ideological schools and groups. For decades the state has been playing a double game—it pays lip service to gender equality, while in reality passing all responsibility to the NGO sector. This article presents an exciting journey in time from the late 1980s to the present day, showing what has been achieved and what today’s situation is.

This is an alphabetical list containing scholar-profiles of the researchers whose publications have been included in this selection. As only some researchers have publication-lists on Google Scholar and Academia.edu, the list is not complete. However, it may facilitate your access to more publications.