Ukraine’s Female Combatants: The Influence of Conflict on Gender Roles and Empowerment

Rebecca Barth ()
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Rebecca Barth: Freie Universität Berlin

A chapter in Gender and Power in Eastern Europe, 2021, pp 63-82 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract When war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, many women assumed positions in unofficial volunteer battalions and the Ukrainian Army that were not intended for them. They became snipers, infantry soldiers, and drone pilots. Before the war, positions open to women in the army were limited to those with “typically female” connotations, such as medic, radio operator, seamstress, or cook. The structure alone of the distribution of tasks in the military provides an indication of the roles that women in Ukrainian society are traditionally expected to occupy: supporter, organizer, and caregiver. And, even though equal rights are enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution, society seems to continue to be male dominated. According to the United Nations, just over 12% of the members of the Ukrainian parliament are female (United Nations Ukraine n.d.)—compared to 31% in Germany (Deutscher Bundestag 2019).

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:socchp:978-3-030-53130-0_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-53130-0_6

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