Analytical material by Olena Strelnyk, Doctor of Sociological Sciences: “Gender (in)equality under war conditions: challenges and opportunities for Ukrainian society”

The website of the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine has published an analytical material by Olena Strelnyk, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, "Gender (in)equality under war conditions: challenges and opportunities for Ukrainian society"

All wars affect a society's existing gender ideologies and relations, the distribution of gender roles and the social position of women and men. This effect has been at the centre of many (mainly Anglo-Saxon and northern European) gender and feminist studies of war and security since the 1980s, whose conventional conclusion is that wars usually deepen gender inequality and dramatically worsen the position of women. It is argued, in particular, that war, militarisation and patriarchy are closely interconnected; that during war gender ideologies are built on ideas of men as “defenders” and women as those “who are defended”; and that as a result of wars gender roles become highly polarised and gender inequality deepens.

At the same time these conclusions call for revision because of the unique character of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. To that end I have focused on three dimensions of the war's effect on gender (in)equalities. The legislative dimension is connected with martial law, in which the traditional (patriarchal) gender order is reproduced most distinctly, assigning men during war the role of defenders of the state, which also affects women and is a negative factor for gender equality. The (geo)political aspect is connected with the processes of European integration, which is an important factor in the durability of gender equality policy. The sociocultural dimension is connected with the positive dynamics of public perceptions of the distribution of gender roles and of attitudes towards the rights of LGBT people in the context of the war.

The findings of the study are presented below in three parts: the first concerns the law on martial law, which is a challenge to gender equality because it cements the traditional distribution of gender roles, while the second and third parts are devoted to the positive context of the war's effect on the possibilities for Ukrainian society's further movement towards gender equality — at the level of political decisions and at the level of sociocultural change.

The full material is here