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support of the deputies” to endorse an international conference on the rights of the child this year, and to formulate a national program called Childhood." Child ren cannot wait. They are out today, not only our future.” The following are taken from S. Pavlychko’s article, as well as from other authors’ statistics concerning women and children: In the Soviet Union there are: 6,000,000 abortions per year — probably the high est number in the world. (In the U.S. there are 1,200,000 and 1,330,000 abortions in the same time period). In Ukraine: 14.5 infant mortality rate per year per 1,000 people. 30.000 women do not carry to term. 14.000 children are born with physical and mental defects. 9.000 children are raised in orphanages. 5.000 infants are raised in institutions — these are children abandoned usually by single mothers, these are children of alcoholics, drug addicts and prisoners. The shortage of qualified doctors, of medicines, frequently contribute to the death of infants and mothers. Only in the last few years discoveries were made concerning the terrible state of orphanages and child ren’s homes. Only 20% of school age children in Ukraine are considered healthy. In a previously mentioned article B. Usenko writes that the pathetic state of women and children...” is the result of our economic and ecological neglect, the result of negligible funding for medicine, for education. Also contributing is our low spiritual well being, and cultural standards of the general population. The cult of the mother and child has been forgotten.” During the time of glastnost and reconstruction, an interesting reaction from the communist hierarchy came to light regarding the women’s issues. In an interview conducted in July 1989 by Lidia Mazur, chief editor of “Radianska Zhinka” with Valentyna Shevchenko, it was discussed how to remedy the situation that “women constitute 80% of the physical labor work force, and they are also the majority in the group which works dur ing the third shift..” V. Shevchenko replied: “The prob lems are acute and painful and not particular to women, but to the general population. I realize that with this I will evoke an unfavorable response in your readers, but I must say that these problems were in a way created by our feminine passivity, our lack of education about our rights. The law forbids women to work night shifts, and such is only permissible as a temporary measure. Is this humane and fair. Yes! It is a different matter altogether how this is brought into practice. There are still numer ous supervisors of various ranks in the agricultural arena which have only one demand from a worker — that she yields maximum productivity at whatever cost — her health, free time, family well being. Her sacrifice is irrelevent to them. I, too, am responsible for this.” V. Shevchenko does not say if and what kind of measures she took to ease the fate of women, and blames profes sional syndicates, councils of the collectives, public ministers, doctors, women’s councils. At the conclusion of the interview she declares, “that she had deep respect for women for their innate wisdom, for their spiritual beauty; for the ability to be loyal, to give support in dif ficult situations. But at times it is necessary to feel ones weakness, and realize one’s essence in serving a man. And in fact, when all is well for the woman, all is well for the man also.” Hence, here is the ideal of a party leader in a country where 80% women are engaged as slave labor. Halyna Lytvynova, the secretary of the Republican Council of Women, in an article entitled “If you don’t sow, it won’t green” (February 1990) writes about wo men’s councils — that they don’t have any rights, nor any funds, and “they are responsible for social aware ness which formed itself around the issues of women.” She sites a few examples when women’s councils achieved some successes. Otherwise, the general tone of her article is not very optimistic, when she states that: “Not all women’s councils are psychologically ready to change the structures of work, to spread the measures of their activity, to become part of the solution of global problems.” Nevertheless H. Lytvynova has been “recon structed” when she declares that “...there is no contem porary educated concept of a women’s movement in the country. Probably, in the growing interest as to who we are and from where, a desire to immerse oneself in the history of this movement, which also has its own “white spots” will develop...” Finally, she comes to the conclu sion, “Almost everyone is interested in the foundations and traditions in the workings of women’s councils. However, all that happens someplace else, sooner or later comes to our republic. The development of various community women’s groups, foremost unifying accord ing to mutual interests — that is fundamental in the development of the women’s movement. It must be taken into account. It would not be a bad idea to observe the work of women’s organizations outside our borders... . The rules and traditions we can create and develop our selves without copying others.” In conclusion S. Pavlychko asks what did democrat ization and reconstruction bring to women in Ukraine? The deduction — former organizations are presently invalid, for they do not mirror nor reflect the current cri sis in the lives of women. The women’s movement is non-existent — its ideology is unkown or not popular. It seems that women are not ready to fight for their rights, for human rights. New political organizations do not include women’s issues in their agenda, and women who participate in the conferences of these organizations do not call for them. In the initial conference of RUKH in 1989 there were 98 women among the 1,109 delegates. 45 men and 3 women formed the ruling body of the organization. At the second RUKH conference in 1990 of the 2,023 dele gates, 203 were women, and 17 men and 2 women joined the legislative ranks. No women were included in “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 1991 23
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