Gender Litter and Quotas for Equality

Political history is a history of men’s politics. Women occupy about 12% seats in the world’s parliaments, while the remaining 88% are occupied by men. The situation with the “women’s question” in Ukraine, which was discussed at an April 9 round table in Kyiv dedicated to the first anniversary of creating the Civic Parliament of Ukrainian Women, is as follows: There are only 23 women (or 5%) in the fourth convocation Verkhovna Rada, compared to 9% in the previous one. To quote the Interparliamentary Union’s data, in terms of women’s representation in the legislative body, Ukraine occupies the 84th place among 179 countries. Note that there are no legal obstacles or religious prohibitions hindering the participation of women in bodies of representative self-government. Rather, the problem is psychological. In the words of People’s Deputy Liliya Hryhorovych, one of the major obstacles to women’s active participation in politics is their own view of their place in the society. “We need to break the stereotypes,” Ms. Hryhorovych is convinced. “Nobody is going to put women on some gender sedan chair and carry them into parliament. Even if it happened, they wouldn’t turn out to be competitive.”

Another experienced deputy, Liudmyla Suprun, shares her colleague’s position. She is convinced that the problem of forming a new political personality with female face should be solved not only in women’s consciousness but also on the legislative level. In her view, this foresees establishing a 20% quota for women’s representation in Verkhovna Rada in the process of making amendments to the Constitution. Ms. Suprun believes that this problem still fails to attract sufficient attention. If this quota amendment is adopted, it would be biggest victory of active women in recent years, the deputy emphasized.

However, it seems that male politicians are far from admiring women’s road to victory. People’s Deputy Roman Zvarych, who was invited to take part in the discussion, stated that a 20% quota is a discriminatory approach. In his view, there should be no barriers on gender grounds. He had even introduced a bill in Verkhovna Rada to prohibit any discrimination against women. “Simultaneously,” he stressed, “the world of politics is a man’s world. To find a place for themselves in this world, women have to play by men’s rules. However, it would be a mistake to view this problem within the context of competition with men,” he noted. Maybe this makes some sense. According to a classical author, woman is at her strongest when armed with her frailty.

(See also page SOCIETY)