Ukraine

The Russian Invasion of Ukraine and the Geopolitics of Gender

Dr. Cinzia Solari

October 24, 2023

Hybrid - Ballroom A (U03-3550A Campus Center), University of Massachusetts Boston

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The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine’s Conflict

Citation:

O’Sullivan, Mila. 2020. “The Forgotten Lives: Connecting Gender, Security, and Everyday Livelihoods in Ukraine’s Conflict.” Politics & Gender 16 (3). doi:10.1017/S1743923X20000343

Author: Mila O'Sullivan

Annotation:

Summary:
Recent debates within Women, Peace and Security (WPS) scholarship (e.g., Bergeron, Cohn, and Duncanson 2017; Elias 2015; True 2015) have underlined the need to position the WPS agenda in the context of broader feminist security analysis as defined by early feminist international relations scholars (e.g., Tickner 1992). More precisely, this requires integrating feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist political economy (FPE). At the center of these largely theoretical reflections is a concern that gender-responsive peace-building efforts have too often been undermined by postwar neoliberal economic processes. This essay provides an empirical contribution to this debate, taking the case study of Ukraine as an atypical example of how WPS has been adopted and implemented for the first time during an active conflict. The integration of FPE and FSS proves especially relevant for a country in conflict, where economic austerity policies come along with increased military expenditure. The essay illustrates that the bridging of security and economy is entirely absent in Ukraine's WPS agenda, which has largely prioritized military security while failing to connect it to the austerity policies and the gendered structural inequalities deepened by the ongoing conflict.

Topics: Conflict, Economies, War Economies, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peacebuilding, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2020

Working through Warfare in Ukraine: Rethinking Militarization in a Ukrainian Theme Café

Citation:

Uehling, Greta Lynn. 2020. “Working through Warfare in Ukraine: Rethinking Militarization in a Ukrainian Theme Café.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (3): 335–58.

Author: Greta Lynn Uehling

Abstract:

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia in the Donbas region has led both countries to strengthen their respective militaries. The literature on militarization emphasizes the subtle and largely unconscious ways in which militarization spreads through society. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2017, I argue that attention to the intersubjective aspects of the process exposes the self-conscious working through of military realities. I make this argument using the case study of a restaurant run by demobilized fighters, Café Patriot. Specifically, I show how the café’s proprietors aimed to provide an anti-depressive atmosphere for fighters, and to provoke critical thinking among non-combatant patrons. The café challenged theorizing on militarization by effacing the separation between military and civilian as predicted, but doing so in the interest of reminding people of militarization rather than blinding them to it. These findings highlight veterans’ constructive efforts to re-inhabit a fractured world, and contrast with portrayals in critical studies of militarized masculinity. In sum, the café represented an effort to intervene in the process of militarization using, strangely enough, the trappings of militarization. At stake is the definition of militarization as an insidious process.

Keywords: militarization, masculinity, gender, emotions, veterans, feminism

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2020

Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars

Citation:

Darden, Jessica Trisko, Alexis Henshaw, and Ora Szekely. 2019. Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars. Washington, D.C: Georgetown University Press.

Authors: Jessica Trisko Darden, Alexis Henshaw, Ora Szekely

Annotation:

Summary:
Why do women go to war? Despite the reality that female combatants exist the world over, we still know relatively little about who these women are, what motivates them to take up arms, how they are utilized by armed groups, and what happens to them when war ends. This book uses three case studies to explore variation in women's participation in nonstate armed groups in a range of contemporary political and social contexts: the civil war in Ukraine, the conflicts involving Kurdish groups in the Middle East, and the civil war in Colombia. In particular, the authors examine three important aspects of women's participation in armed groups: mobilization, participation in combat, and conflict cessation. In doing so, they shed light on women's pathways into and out of nonstate armed groups. They also address the implications of women's participation in these conflicts for policy, including postconflict programming. This is an accessible and timely work that will be a useful introduction to another side of contemporary conflict. (Summary from Georgetown University Press)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Ukraine: Defending the Motherland
 
2. The Kurdish Regions: Fighting as Kurds, Fighting as Women
 
3. Colombia: Women Waging War and Peace

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, Female Combatants, Conflict, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding Regions: MENA, Americas, South America, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Colombia, Iraq, Ukraine

Year: 2019

"Being Strong Enough to Defend Yourself": Untangling the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda amidst the Ukranian Conflict

Citation:

O'Sullivan, Mila. 2019. ""Being Strong Enough to Defend Yourself": Untangling the Women, Peace and Security Agenda amidst the Ukrainian Conflict." International Feminist Journal of Politics 21 (5): 746-67.

Author: Mila O'Sullivan

Abstract:

Following the outbreak of armed conflict in 2014, Ukraine adopted a National Action Plan within United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 for the period 2016–20, the first country in conflict to do so. Ukraine's case demonstrates that in a situation of active conflict, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda becomes strongly linked to military security. Drawing on interviews, documents, and narratives by feminist and public figures, I argue that the WPS agenda in Ukraine has taken a narrow militarized form as a result of a combination of three interrelated and mutually constitutive factors: the ongoing conflict, nationalistic feminism, and the role of international organizations. The open conflict has generated a militaristic and nationalistic discourse among mainstream Ukrainians with an emphasis on defending the country. This discourse has been translated by international organizations and national actors into the WPS agenda, which has prioritized security sector reforms. Implementation of the WPS agenda in Ukraine therefore seems to be at odds with this norm's feminist principles. It is not leading to peace but to militarization, neglecting broader insecurities, including socioeconomic inequalities that have, in turn, been exacerbated by the conflict and the state's institutional reforms.

Keywords: conflict, UNSCR 1325, women, peace and security, Ukraine, nationalism, international organizations

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Feminisms, International Organizations, Livelihoods, Nationalism, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2019

Gender and the EU's Support for Security Sector Reform in Fragile Contexts

Citation:

Ansorg, Nadine, and Toni Haastrup. 2018. "Gender and the EU's Support for Security Sector Reform in Fragile Contexts." Journal of Common Market Studies 56 (5): 1127-43.

Authors: Nadine Ansorg, Toni Haastrup

Abstract:

How does the European Union (EU) include ‘gender’ within its support to security sector reform (SSR) programmes? The EU has committed to include gender perspectives by implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda (WPS) within its foreign security practices. While researchers and practitioners recognise the importance of integrating gender issues into SSR operational effectiveness, there is limited knowledge about how this functions within the EU’s security architecture. This article uses Feminist Institutionalism (FI) to understand the process of gender mainstreaming within the EU’s support to SSR programmes. It does this by using two crucial theory-testing cases of SSR programmes – Ukraine and Afghanistan. It finds that the EU’s ability to promote gender inclusive approaches to SSR is limited by the structure of the EU’s own assumptions and capabilities, and institutional constraints in third countries. At the same time, the cases underscore the importance of individuals as agents of change. 

Keywords: EU, security sector reform, Gender, feminist institutionalism, security

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Security, Security Sector Reform, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Afghanistan, Ukraine

Year: 2018

Women, War and Austerity: IFIs and the Construction of Gendered Economic Insecurities in Ukraine

Citation:

Mathers, Jennifer G. 2020. “Women, War and Austerity: IFIs and the Construction of Gendered Economic Insecurities in Ukraine.” Review of International Political Economy, April, 1–22. doi: 10.1080/09692290.2020.1725903.

Author: Jennifer G. Mathers

Abstract:

This paper analyses the gendered circuits of violence that create and sustain economic insecurity in Ukraine. Drawing on feminist political economy analysis of the dependence of structural adjustment programmes on women’s labor, and feminist security studies critical analysis of the negative effects of militaries on human security, the paper shows how IFI-imposed austerity measures in Ukraine are inextricable from processes of militarization. While the gendered impacts of each of these distinct processes have been explored, this paper empirically demonstrates how IFI loan conditionalities and militarization intensify and reinforce one another precisely through the burdens they place on households and especially on women in the context of conflict.

Keywords: Ukraine, global financial crisis, international financial institutions, Gender, conflict, security, russia

Topics: Economies, Feminist Economics, Conflict, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Households, International Financial Institutions, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarization, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Security, Violence Regions: Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Russian Federation, Ukraine

Year: 2020

Gender Budgeting in Ukraine: Theory and Practice

Citation:

Ivanina, Tatiana, and Svitlana Ievchenko, Nelli Karpets, Olena, Mykytas, Olena Ostapchuk, Natalia Riabushenko, Olga Zhukova, Oksana Yarosh. 2016. “Gender Budgeting in Ukraine: Theory and Practice.” UN Women.

Authors: Tatiana Ivanina, Svitlana Ievchenko, Nelli Karpets, Olena Mykytas, Olena Ostapchuk, Natalia Riabushenko, Olga Zhukova, Oksana Yarosh

Annotation:

"Introduction: Today the policy of gender equality is an important factor of global development and a fundamental human right. Most governments have committed to achieve the gender equality goals and implement the gender perspective in the public policy. To this end, numerous tools and approaches have been developed. Since 1995, a number of international organizations and agencies, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, now UN Women), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) etc., has initiated the integration of a gender perspective to the budgets and thus contributed to the development of the concept and strategy of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). The GRB concept was envisioned as a flexible mechanism of developing the targeted policies to ensure the equitable distribution of resources for different social groups, and it gives researchers and practitioners an opportunity to continuously expand its context, ensuring its functioning as an effective tool to ensure social inclusion and gender equality. Despite all the benefits of gender-responsive budgeting, this strategy is not common in Ukraine. The lack of a single national policy paper that would define the need for GRB implementation and provide a methodological basis for it impedes the introduction of the gender responsive budgeting. As part of the implementation of the Gender-Responsive Budgeting at the Local Level Project (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) and the Program Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality (UN Women), the domestic methodological approaches to introducing GRB were developed and tested locally. This Handbook contains a description of theoretical and practical approaches for implementing gender-responsive budgeting. The Annexes include a detailed description of the GRB methodology and methodology for costing gender equality. The authors hope that the proposed Handbook will be useful for gender experts and practitioners, officials and civil society activists implementing the gender equality policies at the state and local levels" (Ivanina et al., 2016, p. 5-6).

Topics: Development, Gender, Gender Budgeting, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Governance, International Organizations Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2016

Women and Weapons: Redressing the Gender Gap: A Ukrainian Response

Citation:

Sinovets, Polina. 2014. “Women and Weapons: Redressing the Gender Gap: A Ukrainian Response.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 70 (5): 21–23.

Author: Polina Sinovets

Abstract:

In nuclear war, women would suffer at least as much as men. But women tend to be underrepresented in fields—such as high-level politics, diplomacy, military affairs, and science and technology—that bear on nuclear policy. Authors from four countries—Salma Malik of Pakistan (2014), Polina Sinovets of Ukraine, Reshmi Kazi of India (2014), and Jenny Nielsen of Denmark (2014)discuss how women might gain greater influence on nuclear weapons policy and how their empowerment might affect disarmament and nonproliferation efforts.

Keywords: Carol Cohn, education, femininity, feminism, international organizations, masculinity, nuclear politics, nuclear weapons, soft power, women

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gender Analysis, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, International Organizations, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2014

The Cinderella Syndrome: Economic Expectations, False Hopes and the Exploitation of Trafficked Ukrainian Women

Citation:

Vijeyarasa, Ramona. 2012. “The Cinderella Syndrome: Economic Expectations, False Hopes and the Exploitation of Trafficked Ukrainian Women.” Women’s Studies International Forum 35 (1): 53–62. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.09.004.

Author: Ramona Vijeyarasa

Abstract:

Human trafficking is a multi-causal and multi-dimensional issue. The case of Ukraine evidences this complexity, with relevant factors spanning Ukraine's political history, its relations with the EU and the current state of socio-economic development. This paper focuses on the role of barriers to full and equal participation in the labour market for Ukrainian women as a driver of human trafficking. The purpose is to use qualitative data and secondary sources to assess the extent to which a causal relationship can be identified between labour market barriers and vulnerability to trafficking and trafficking-like conditions that result from the search for economic betterment abroad by irregular or undocumented means. Attention is also paid to the pull factor of images of migrant success abroad, an element which is often neglected in trafficking discussions. Consequently, labour market barriers are intimately connected to the lure of migration success in destination countries, whether true, exaggerated or entirely false.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Economies, Economic Inequality, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Violence Regions: Europe, Eastern Europe Countries: Ukraine

Year: 2012

Pages

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