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MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY-CHOMIAK FEMINISM IN UKRAINIAN HISTORY At first glance, feminism would appear to have played a small role in Ukrainian history. As an ideology advocat ing women’s liberation, feminism tends to arouse skep tical reactions, in much the same fashion as nationalism elicits weary sighs and raised eyebrows from many nationals of independent states or of dominant nations with an empire, who take their own national assertion for granted but consider the contemporary striving of others for national self-assertion to be cultural and polit ical infantilism. Feminism and Ukrainian history? What could be more irrelevant? What could be less timely, given the many pressing needs of the Ukrainian nation, Ukrainian scholarship, and various groups of the Ukra inian diaspora? A detailed analysis of the history of the Ukrainian women’s movement, however, belies this contention. A closer look at feminism, moreover, reveals similarities between feminism and nationalism. Both have advanced the importance of an entity—Ukraine or women—whose existence as a valid and separate unit has been questi oned. Both Ukrainians and women have had to justify their quest for autonomy within political and social sys tems that relegate them to subordinate positions. Both have had to face similar drawbacks: the lack of an insti tutional base, accusations of selfish exclusiveness, and charges of pettiness. The instruments for promoting both ideologies frequently have been limited to educa tion and literature. The major issue for both has been how to achieve autonomy and legitimate self-worth, and how to gain some measure of individual independence. Ukrainian women helped to create a nationally aware secular intelligentsia. But in the face of blatant political and national repression, of violation of basic human rights, Ukrainian women’s organizations consi dered that the assertion of the rights of the nation had to be their first priority. For any Ukrainian in the Rus sian Empire in the nineteenth century, being Ukrainian meant being hostile to the ideology that provided sup port for Russian tsarism and consciously accepting a progressive world view. All Ukrainian patriots were pro gressive in their outlook and democratic in their politics. The recognition of the basic equality of men and women was an integral part of their orientation. Ukrainian women managed to avoid the rigidly doc trinaire thinking that frequently doomed the Eastern- European intelligentsia to sterile discussions. They were neither expected to develop an ideology nor conditi Reprinted by permission of Journal of Ukrainian Studies, Spring 1982. oned to such discussions. Instead, they concentrated on the “small deeds” approach, doing what needed to be done regardless of its scope. Failure to provide ideo logical justification for their work did not harm them, but failure to see the broader implications of feminism made them blind to the importance of their own work. Some eastern-Ukrainian women activists even denied being feminists, because they identified feminism with a narrow political liberalism. Zinaida Mirna, a woman activist originally from the Kuban, stressed that there was no conflict between the women’s movement and dedicated patriotism: In whatever forms the women’s movement manifested itself in Ukraine, it strove for everything for which a true democracy aimed—an equal measure of freedom and responsibility for each individual as a precondition for the greater consciousness of the self and the better per formance of one’s duties toward the national community.1 Although sexual equality was taken for granted within the Ukrainian patriotic milieu, a patronizing atti tude within it toward women can nevertheless be de tected. Concomitantly, the women downplayed their own importance and deferred to the men, even in defin ing the role of women. What, after all, does the traditional role of the mother entail? Peasant women could never afford the luxury of just looking after husbands and children. They also ran the internal economy of the household, worked in the fields, and did extra work for fashioned handicrafts to supplement the family income. In the early stages of industrialization, the backbreaking labors in the fields were replaced by equally difficult work in the factories, or by taking in borders, laundering or sewing to earn money. Taras Shevchenko understood the reality of the life of peasant women when he wrote: “ I do not know why they call a quiet peasant home a paradise.” Even the widely quoted U nashim rai na zemli Nichoho krashchoho nemaie lak taia maty molodaia is a poem on the loneliness of the mother, her unre quited love for her child. It ends with a doomsday pre diction for the mother: 1Zhinka (Lviv), 1937, no. 7. 30 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ-СЕРПЕНЬ 1984 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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