A sociological view of the gender turn

Expert discussions at the Book Arsenal are always notable events. In the context of this year's Arsenal theme — “Carrying your freedom” — a weighty contribution was made by Olena Strelnyk, Senior Research Fellow of the Department of Social Structures, who took part on 29 May in the packed discussion “Feminism in Ukraine: history, experience, uncomfortable questions”.

How the role of women in society is changing, why gender equality still meets resistance and incomprehension, how the war affects these processes, why it is impossible to respond honestly to today's challenges without knowing history — the participants spoke about all this and more. Olena's contribution was based on the results of her research, presented among other places in the chapter “Is a conservative gender turn taking place in a society engulfed by war?” of the Institute's monograph “Ukrainian society under war conditions. The year 2024”.

One focus of the discussion was the announcement of Olena Strelnyk's new popular science book “A strawberry on a cactus: 45 questions about gender (in)equality and feminism”, to be published shortly by Creative Women Publishing with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kyiv Office.

The sociological view of the problem aroused great interest among those present and was warmly received, as is usually the case with the research of scholars from the Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine.