The stereotypical belief that politics is solely the domain of men is slowly changing in Ukraine. In 2000 Ukraine signed the Millennium Development Goals at a UN summit. Ukraine pledged to increase the quantity of women in power to 30 percent until 2015. Many European countries realize that women should be present in political bodies, and the proportion there is fifty-fifty. Women usually take care of social programs and everything that is connected with providing normal life for families, children, education and health. And they work really well. The examples are Finland, Denmark and Norway. There are no women in our government, which had not occurred in a long time, and only 8.7 percent of people in the Verkhovna Rada are women.
The local elections will soon take place [the article was written prior to the October 31 elections – Ed.].
The Ukrainian Women’s Fund, together with the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, decided to study gender aspects of the Ukrainians’ choice, and their attitudes towards increasing the portion of women in local councils.
They determined that a majority of the voters (both men and women) want to see more women in power, especially in the local councils (47 percent were for while 35 percent were against). 58 percent of the surveyed women want to see more women in the local governments. What is more interesting is that about 60 percent of Ukrainians do not really care about the gender of a candidate to a local council or a mayoral post.
At the same time 31 percent of Ukrainians believe that the low percentage of women in politics is caused by “lack of time, as they are busy with the household chores,” while 24 percent opine that “men prevent ladies from entering politics.” Also, 53 percent of Ukrainians agree with the European practice of quotas for women. The study found that all the parts of Ukraine have pretty much the same attitude towards this issue, although there are some differences in the Donbas and Crimea. Iryna BEKESHKINA, the research officer of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation and senior research officer of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, explained this phenomenon in greater detail:
Why do so many Ukrainians want to see more women in power. In your opinion, were they honest, as now it is trendy to talk about women in the government?
“There is an opinion dominating in the study. There is no doubt that women want other women in power, while men are divided in their opinions: some 30 percent of men are pro, 30 — contra and the rest have not decided yet. What concerns honesty, the people lie when they are afraid, and there is nothing to be afraid of here. People also lie when they believe that their honest answer would not be respected.”
How do the Ukrainian results fare in comparison to those of other European states? Do the Europeans favor women more?
“It is a norm for Europe to have a government, half of which consists of women [the 2010 levels vary between 8.7 and 46.4 percent in the EU in terms of women in national parliament. In 2008 between 6.2 and 60 percent of EU national ministers were women – Ed.]. Certainly, there are different countries (a few years ago I was surprised that the number of women in the French parliament is the same as in the Ukrainian one). If the law provides it, those places have parity. If the law does not foresee this norm, the situation can be better or the same as in Ukraine.”
How can you explain women’s answers that “the men prevent them from entering politics?” What are they talking about?
“I do not know what they meant, but once a lady lawmaker told me, ‘Our work and life of female lawmakers does not differs from the male’s, but once a man lawmaker comes home there are clean clothes and a hot meal waiting for him.’ When I come home, I start washing clothes and cooking meals…’ If we are talking about dynamics, public opinion considerably changed for the better. It can be explained by the fact that the people see that real women-politicians are engaged in politics. We will not say how they are treated but the people understand that women are not worse than men in politics. That is why I think that the main obstacle is not public opinion but objective reasons, which prevent women from being engaged not only in politics but in any other work that requires unlimited working hours.”
There are certain regional differences in the survey. The politician’s gender is more important for Donbas and Crimean citizens. How can you explain it?
“There was a question about a mayor: ‘Does the gender of a future mayor matter?’ An absolute majority of men and women answered ‘No.’ Some part would vote only for a man or a woman. The Crimea and Donbas people did not differ a lot in voting for a woman (about two or three percent more, within the margin of error). It is not much at all, probably, because women drink less. Talking about mayor, women believe that they are more practical.”
Talking about woman’s household chores. Is there any difference between us and female politicians in Europe?
“First of all, there are fewer requirements for women as homemakers in Europe. Let us say that you are going to visit someone, you do not expect 20 dishes to be served. Because people go to communicate, they would get something from a supermarket. And our tradition says, once you go visit someone, everything has to be homemade, tasty and in large quantities. I remember once we visited a professor in Canada. He cut vegetables, served a turkey. We started praising his wife and she replied, ‘I did not cook it, he did, as you are his guests…’ There is no division into men and women’s duties in the middle class. Our society is too patriarchal in this sense. But I suppose that it will change, maybe even under external pressure. For instance, consider an example from Turkey, which is an even more traditional country than ours. A lot of Turks are involved in construction works in summer and autumn. In winter they come back home as there is no work for them. They stay home with the children and women take a job not to sit at home all the time. They work in such places where the men would not see them — in the factories, in the utility rooms. I think that we will take this way too, as there are lots of families where women make more money and it does not necessarily cause conflicts. You see, the changes in the public conscience are a slow process, while it is intensive here.”
Is the current government a reflection of our patriarchal system?
“Definitely. No matter how people treat Akimova, but when I see her, I realize that she is a cut above the current government. It is obvious. There are many women who were able to take up high posts, but politics still belongs to men. And men delegate other men.”
Do you think our authorities are ready for the idea to have more women on different levels of power?
“I would carefully introduce an assignment of quotas. The public opinion is ‘pro’ but if I was questioned, I would ‘find difficulty in replying.’ Because we should not approach it only formally — just to fill the blanks. If there is such a requirement, someone would be appointed, but the thing is to make the women competitive. The issue is impossible to solve only by passing some law. I would not support such an action now, but it is good that the public would take it well.”
Should we expect evolutionary progress, rather than one based on a quota system?
“Our revolution can have a different pace. I think that it will be fast in Ukraine: I see the current public organizations and I see wonderful female leaders. Especially in local public organizations, where girls make up almost a half of the activists. Participation in public life can be a base for political activity, if they want. Public work resembles politics in many ways, except for the activists do not fight for seats.”
