Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg
Fakultät für Geistes-, Sozial- und Erziehungswissenschaften
Insitut für Sociologie
Proseminar "Gender Issues in Contemporary Russia"
Semester: 4

Transformations and changes in contemporary
Ukrainian femininity models

von: Nataliya Gudz

Contents

Introduction 3

1. Transformation of the old Soviet gender traditions into the new Ukrainian surrounding 4

2. A woman as embodiment of the national identity – Mother- Protector 5

3. Western models of femininity 8

3.1. A supported woman – Barbie 9
3.2. An independent woman - Business Woman 11

Conclusions 13

The list of the used literature sources 14

Appendix 15

Introduction

After the declaration of the Ukrainian independence and fall of the “iron curtain” the awareness of the Ukrainian women was drastically changed. Ideologically guided canon of femininity – “a Soviet super-woman” as “a working mother” – has lost its actuality; in the 1990s it was changed by new life standards, behaviour models, values and moral norms. At once the nationalist movements appeared on the scene and demanded to design and maintain national identity with articulation of basic concepts of nationality. In Ukraine this process was socially defined through the modern reconstruction of patriarchy supported by the educational system, mass media, political discourse, and legislation. Having recognised Ukrainian as the official language, Ukraine began moulding ideology constructed on the conception of the pre- Revolutionary Ukraine. The entangled images of the Cossack republic and the image of Ukraine as Mother, together with vital revival of Orthodoxy, strengthened patriarchy in politics, social order and cultural structures of the modern Ukrainian society. However through economical crisis and society instability, the image of Mother-Protector correlated with the historical past and traditional culture of the Ukrainians was shifted from its key position by unfamiliar before, but rather appealing “Western models of femininity”. In this paper we try to find out how all these images of femininity were created, maintained and transformed through the recent years.

1. Transformation of the old Soviet gender traditions into the new Ukrainian surrounding

After the collapse of the Communist regime, the new-born Ukrainian state had to create its national identity, partially through the revival and transformation of the old traditions, partially by the new images of masculinity and femininity. In the first years of independence the state made weak attempts to get rid of the Soviet ideology in the gender matters. According to Catherine Wanner1 who made a wide research on the Ukrainian educational system, many teachers admitted that the Soviet society had poisoned and vulgarised the essence of a man and a woman in the process of striving for gender equality. They stated that such system authorised and masculinised women, especially on the working places, at the expense of men who were deprived of their authorities and their role of breadwinners. Aiming at the gender equality, the Soviet project deformed the inner psychological and other differences. However, at home the gender role representation remained traditional. Due to the educational system, mass media, political discourse, and legislation all levels of the Ukrainian society approved such gender distribution. Catherine Wanner proves that at the beginning of the 90s the Ukrainian school system remained faithful to the old public gender distribution. For instance, aiming to educate the future Ukrainian elite, one of the schools in its timetable offered a psycho-training course, separately for boys and girls. It exercised girls to be tender and caring, with the precise orientation to their future motherhood roles as a milestone of the Ukrainian independence and feminisation. On the contrary, boys were taught to be self-confident, solve problems and take decisions. Moreover, the school timetable also included the course aiming to inspire children to be creative, held also separately, because “boys and girls acquire different abilities, different education models and born for the different society roles”2. At the beginning of the 90s distribution of gender roles in Ukraine hasn’t rather differed from that in the Soviet Union. Based on the traditional Soviet role of a housewife and “natural” role of a mother, a “new” Ukrainian woman advanced for a medium and protector of traditions and as a mother of the whole Ukrainian nation by giving birth to the new citizens, educating them on the Orthodox moral code and creating political space for the wide usage and strengthening of the patriarchal system in the future.

2. A woman as embodiment of the national identity – Mother-Protector

At the beginning of independence the Soviet role of a woman was attempted to be changed for a new woman′s image - Mother-Protector - artificially created by the state. Very soon this image was widely spread throughout Ukraine, enjoyed popularity and was widely advertised by the state and political figures. The eclectical image of Mother-Protector was based on the fragments of the archaic pagan beliefs in the Great Mother-Earth, on the elements of the Orthodox cult of the Blessed Virgin, and on some folklore motives and traits of the literature characters. Firstly, the Orthodox Church always supported the patriarchal gender division in the Ukrainian society. The cult of the Blessed Virgin has been very popular in Ukraine, but in the first run it implied that She was the Mother of the Saviour – a role of a woman as a mother was defined on the religious level.

Secondly, in the traditional Ukrainian agrarian society the division of house chores was strictly depended on gender: trades and most of the hard field labour was the man’s sphere, a woman’s realm was limited only to housekeeping. Thirdly, historically, political, social and cultural spheres in the Ukrainian society were associated with Zaporozhska Sich’, strictly masculine organisation, as the feminine presence was prohibited because of the threat for the man’s competitive spirit3. Symbolising the permanent striving and devotion to the ideas of democracy, liberty and individuality it served as an Orthodoxy stronghold and belief in fo refathers.

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1 Wanner, Catherine, Burden of Dreams: History and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine, Pennsylvania State University, 1998, p. 112.

2 See above, p. 114.

3 Subtel’nyj, Orest, Ukraina: Istoria, Lybid’, Kiiv, 1993, 142 p.