25 years after Beijing Declaration, Ukraine still faces 3 challenges to achieving gender equality

October 30, 2019

Photo credit: Tetiana Grytsenko / UNDP Ukraine

Almost twenty-five years have passed since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, which saw the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to achieve gender equality, but the struggle for equal rights is still going on across the world.

In Ukraine, there has been slow but steady progress: Thanks to the work of women’s organizations, civil society, governments, and individuals, the country is moving in the direction of gender equality, one step at a time.

Following the parliament election in Ukraine in July 2019, the number of parliamentary seats held by women almost doubled, from 12 percent in the 2014 elections to around 21 percent now.

All the same, according to some of the latest available data, women are paid on average only around 80 percent of the wage paid to men doing the same job at a similar level of seniority. Fewer women than men of working age have jobs (55 percent versus 69 percent), and 58 percent of internally displaced people are women.

Women in Ukraine are also at far greater risk of suffering domestic violence, people trafficking, or sexual harassment and violence.

So, there is still a great deal of work to be done to achieve gender equality. The question is: How will we go about it? Experts say there are still three big challenges to achieving gender equality in Ukraine.

Equal representation

Kateryna Levchenko, the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy in Ukraine, remembers when only 3 percent of Ukrainian MPs were women, back in 1990. While this number has steadily increased over the years, she notes that the proportion of women in decision-making roles decreases as the level of decision-making increases.

According to a UNDP study, women are more likely to be elected leaders in low-income communities where resources are limited. Furthermore, there are many obstacles to women’s full, equal participation in government. These include: gender stereotypes, an unequal distribution of unpaid care work being performed by women, and suboptimal development of child-care infrastructure, amongst others.

To overcome these, it will take the joint efforts by all levels of society. As Levchenko puts it: “One thing to note is that no changes will happen by themselves. The changes we seek require our joint efforts – efforts to be taken by the government, political parties, women’s movements, civil society in general, and international organizations.”

Getting men onboard

Oleksii Zhmerenetskyi understands the importance of being publicly committed to gender equality as a man: “As a Co-Chair of the Equal Opportunity Caucus in the Parliament of Ukraine, I have a unique opportunity to encourage other Ukrainian men to work towards achieving equal rights,” he says.

“We have a strong understanding that gender issues are not only women’s issues. If more men talk about this issue, then fewer people will support outdated inequality standards.”

Zhmerenetskyi also notes the unique challenges women face in the political arena. Sexism, harassment, including sexual harassment, and psychological violence are just some examples. Going forward, this needs to be addressed, he says.

Tackling the backlash

The Coordinator of the Public Council on Gender Issues in the Equal Opportunities Caucus in the Parliament of Ukraine, Larysa Kobelianska brings up yet another unforeseen obstacle in the quest for equal rights: gender backlash.

In recent years Ukraine has seen a troubling rise in anti-gender-equality movements, with extreme nationalist or far-right groups speaking out against perceived challenges to traditional gender roles.

“Opponents of the feminist movements use the rhetoric of ‘preserving and protecting’ the traditional, special, and unique elements of local culture from the ‘plague of feminism,’” Kobelianska says.

“However, this is nothing more than thinly veiled manipulation,” Kobelianska adds. “The purpose of the anti-gender movement is merely to impose homophobic and racist rhetoric, in the guise of protecting traditional family values.”

With UNDP’s support, representatives from Ukraine participated in the Beijing+25 Regional Review Meeting in Geneva on 29-30 October 2019 to reflect back on the developments in advancing gender equality in the country and the region. UNDP co-hosted a side event, titled Politics, Parity, Power: Towards a #NextGen Gender Equality in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, together with five other countries – Montenegro, Sweden, Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova; and a session during the main event, entitled Women in Leadership: Women’s Representation in Policy- and Decision-making. As a result, all stakeholders will develop a roadmap for strategic interventions for accelerating gender equality in Ukraine.

Text: Rebecca Zuk, Tetiana Grytsenko / UNDP Ukraine