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gives as an example the situation in the Institute of Literature, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which is divided into ten departments. Directors, their deputies and secretaries are men, although the Institute employs the same number of men and women. The Writer’s Union of Ukraine has many women members, yet it was never chaired by a woman. Editors of literary, scholarly, political and popular magazines and newspapers are men, with the only exception of the magazine “Radianska Zsinka”. In keeping with the communist ideology, the chief role of women in society is motherhood. Propaganda has it that the state cares for mothers and helps them in various ways such as providing nurseries for infants and pre-school facilities, as well as offering meals, etc. Why is it that with such favorable conditions the birth rate in Ukraine is only 2.8 for each 1000 people? A partial answer to this question is given by T. Mushyka in the article “The social economic factors in the demographic behavior of young families” in the journal “The Econom ics of Soviet Ukraine” in 1982. The article was based on a survey questionnaire of young women working in four light industry factories in the region of Zakarpatia. The questions asked dealt with number of children desired and the factors which influenced these women’s demo graphic behavior. The results were as follows: N um ber of children desired: 37% — 1 child 46% — 2 children 9% — 3 or more children 6% — no children Reasons for lim iting num ber o f children: — difficulties in combining parental responsibilities with a job. — lack of day care centers and kindergartens for children; the ones in existence are crowded and employ unqualified personnel. — as the number of children increases in the family, its material welfare decreases. — shortage of apartments; frequently married couples have to wait years for one. — women who have two or three children cannot up grade their job qualifications and therefore are paid lower wages, and ultimately receive a lower pension in comparison to women who are childless or to^ those who have raised only one child. In order to insure the minimum growth of the popu lation, the average for each family should be three children. Only in one article which was available to me (D. Tuz. “Bring love back to the madonna.”) the author, based on the statistics of the city of Chernivtsi health department, discusses the relationship between the des tructive ecological environment of work and health problems experienced by women such as spontaneous abortions, still births, barrenness. She also states that: “The press, having removed all taboos from the socio- " Molod’ Ukrainy” political life, is afraid to loose its virtue by openly and directly discussing the women’s issues without fancy words and compassionate euphemisms. An entire group of problems is being ignored, problems which are tied to the physiology of women, and which for some time now have reverted from being purely medical to social.” She continues: “How long will subjects which are tied to the particulars of our feminine bodies be considered in bad taste? Haven’t we ourselves, through our superflu ous modesty determined that talking about these sub jects is shameful?” She also writes that supervisors on jobs feel that a pregnant woman’s work load can be eased only if she “shows”. If she does not “show” a doc tor’s note confirming her pregnancy will not help in pro viding any relief at work. Valentyna Usenko, in her article “The trials and tribulations of the privileged,” also discusses this situa tion. In the infant mortality statistics, 30% show deaths resulting from birth defects. The author feels that “This is the result of pregnant women working in harmful environments, and the law which says that these women should be transferred to easier jobs in the first stages of pregnancy is not enforced. We keep hearing.... there is a lack of funds for this.” She also proposes with the 22 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 1991 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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