Part 3: Gender issues in wartime Ukraine and post-war development

This part is focused on Ukrainan scholarship on different gendered issues under the current russia’s war in Ukraine. Rethinking

• Lecture 1: Women’s agency in war and peacemaking: A feminist agenda for post-war reconstruction

  Description: This lecture will be focused on two key blocks. First, we will briefly overview the arguments presented in literature in support of women’s participation in peace processes and decisions about the post-war transition, by looking at the Women Peace and Security agenda and its “participation” pillar. We will analyse and discuss the issue of participation from an intersectional and decolonial perspective. Second, we will consider what gaps have emerged in the processes of post-war recovery and transition and why these processes need to be gender-sensitive and inclusive. We will consider cases of Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as examples and will look more closely at the ongoing processes of Ukraine recovery and its gender components.

  Lecturer: Oksana Potapova, London School of Economics

  Reader:

  • Céspedes-Báez, L. M., Jaramillo Ruiz, F. (2018) ‘“Peace without women does not go!” Women’s struggle for inclusion in Colombia’s peace process with the FARC’, Colombia Internacional, 94, pp. 83–109.
  • Stavrevska E. (2018) The Mother, the Wife, the Entrepreneur? Women’s Agency and Microfinance in a Disappearing Post-Conflict Welfare State Context, Civil Wars, 20:2, 193-216, DOI: 10.1080/13698249.2018.1498217
  • Potapova, O., O’Sullivan M. (2024). “What Peace When We Win: Decolonising Feminist Visions of Peace in Ukraine” in Shevtsova, M. “Feminist Perspectives on Russia’s War in Ukraine. Hear Our Voices”. (2024).
• Lecture 2: Gender, citizenship, and women’s rights: The war as a challenge and an opportunity for feminism in Ukraine

  Description: Russia’s war on Ukraine dramatically affects the situation of women and their social, civil, political, cultural, and ecological rights. Women are playing a key role in humanitarian response; women’s both professional and care burden has increased significantly, those who fled the country are mostly women with children as most men are prohibited from leaving the country during martial law. Women are at high risk of war-related sexualized violence, and less reported domestic violence, especially in areas close to war zones.

  The war affects the relations between the state and individuals in a distinctly gendered way. I consider the gendered nature of military service duty to be one of the key factors that form gendered citizenship, that is, different modes of relations between the state and female and male citizens. It is not only about the fact that the state entrusts only men with the duty to protect the state and that mostly men provide the state defense but also about the fact that this situation also affects women.

  The war dramatically affected a wide range of opportunities for women to exercise their rights. I focus on three components: 1) women's political participation in a broad sense, 2) care economy and reproductive work as a key factor for the realization of the number of rights by women, and 3) women's activism and, in particular, on the position of the Ukrainian feminist movement in the context of the war. I share my thoughts on the war as a challenge and opportunity for Ukrainian feminism in the context of public and political legitimization of its demands, and changes in the political context associated with Ukraine obtaining the status of a candidate for EU accession.

  Lecturer: Olena Strelnyk, Technical University Munich

  Reader:

  1. Hrytsenko Hanna. Five Years after Euromaidan: Feminist Outcomes from 2014–2019. In Hender v detaliakh, 11.02.2022
  2. Kis Oksana. Feminism in Ukraine: Steps Towards Our True Selves. In three parts. In Hender v detaliakh, 2021. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
  3. Philips Sarah and Tamara Martsenyuk. Women's agency and resistance in Russia's war on Ukraine: From victim of the war to prominent force. Women's Studies International Forum Volume 98, May–June 2023.
  4. Strelnyk Olena, “From “Berehynya” and “Beauty” to women’s agency: Media images of women in the context of Russia’s war on Ukraine”. Ukrainian Voices: Gendering Russia’s war in Ukraine, Lexington Books, expected in March 2024
  5. Strelnyk Olena. Gender, Citizenship and War: How Russia’s War on Ukraine Affects Women’s Political Rights, Femina Politica – Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 1-2023, p. 87-94
  6. UN Women & Care International. “Rapid Gender Analysis of Ukraine”. Kyiv, 2022,
     Link
• Lecture 3: Transformation of masculinities under war in Ukraine

  Description: This lecture explores transforming concepts of masculinities starting with the Euromaidan protests of 2013-2014 and into the ongoing war against Ukraine. It draws on socio-constructivist ideas and critique of the biological-deterministic approach to explaining male roles and is based on critical male theory. The lecture uses the concept and theory of hegemonic masculinity to explain militarized (heroic or “real”) masculinities in Maidan and Russia’s current full-scale war in Ukraine. It also addresses the issues of sexism and strategy of “othering,” sexuality, and masculinity issues. Finally, the lecture discusses new masculinities becoming more visible in the public discourse since the full-scale invasion. Among them, we plan to analyze the image of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. Finally, the LGBTQ military and their increasing visibility in 2022-2023 offered an opportunity to challenge the heteronormative hegemonic masculinities in the context of the war.

  Lecturer: Tamara Martsenyuk, National Univ. ”Kyiv Mohyla Academy”

  Reader:

  1. Bureychak, Tetyana (2012), Masculinity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Ukraine: Models and Their Implications in Gender, Politics, and Society in Ukraine, ed. by Olena Hankivsky and Anastasiya Salnykova, University of Toronto Press, p. 325-359.
  2. Martsenyuk, T. (2016). Sexuality and Revolution in Post-Soviet Ukraine: LGBT Rights and the Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014. Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, 2 (1), 49-74.
  3. Roβmann, S. (2016). ‘To Serve like a Man’—Ukraine’s Euromaidan and the Questions of Gender, Nationalism and Generational Change. In Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context (pp. 202-217). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
• Lecture 4: Demographic situation: moral panic and reproductive pressure/work

  Description: The current demographic situation in Ukraine is very complex and has been described as a 'crisis' since the end of the 20th century. Russia's war against Ukraine added new challenges to the demographic situation. These are killed and wounded soldiers (primarily men), captured military personnel and civilians, the deportation of children and adults, millions of internally displaced people, and millions of individuals (primarily women and children) who have left the country. So, it is unsurprising that moral panic is the second issue of the post-totalitarian gendered discourse in contemporary Ukraine. And the abortion discussion is a well-studied example of moral panic.

  Lecturer: Lyudmyla Males, Taras Shevchenko National Univ. of Kyiv

  Reader:

  The World’s Abortion Laws Map Stanley Cohen Folk Devils and Moral Panics - 3-d edition (Extensions pp XXVI-XXXII)

• Lecture 5: Universities during the war: Resilience and Rebuilding

  Description: This lecture explores the transformative journey of academic institutions in times of war. The lecture will delve into the challenges faced by universities in times of war, exploring their ability to adapt, innovate and ultimately contribute to the post-conflict reconstruction process. The lecture will focus on stories of perseverance, academic resilience, and the key role universities play in shaping the future even in the most difficult circumstances.

  Lecturer: Olena Muradyan, Karazin Kharkiv University

  Reader: