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of discussion. I had attended two planning sessions for this conference, and had prepared myself for the usual lyric informality that permeates most conferences in the lands of the former USSR. I was in for a pleasant sur prise. The conference started on time, the presentations were professional, crisp and well prepared; everyone adhered to the timetable and to the topic. Professor Tamara Melnyk ran the deliberations with a deft and knowledgeable hand. The speakers focused upon the creation of conditions that would foster the growth of civic society and on specific measures women should take to ensure the functioning of a democratic state. They discussed the methods of lobbying, of the best ways of organizing, of drafting letters and petitions, of encouraging women to participate actively in party and government work. They listened to American, Austrian, German, and Canadian politicians provide their frank insights into the issues facing women in politics. But my greatest surprise came at the passage of the resolutions of the conference. Usually, these documents have a hortatory nature. This conference sent specific demands to President Kravchuk: enforcement of the provisions of the United Nations Document to End Dis crimination of Women that Ukraine signed after the Nairobi Conference in 1985; taking into particular con sideration the fact that women are the first to lose their jobs. The women also moved into the language of modernity, asking for the incorporation of gender-related legislature, of specific measures to be taken for covert discrimination, to create conditions that would make sexual harassment difficult and eventually illegal, and to support the creation of Women’s Studies centers at institutions of higher learning. This document, supported by the participants of the conference, was delivered to President Kravchuk. The reaction was thunderous in its absence, and the H ro m a d a women continue their efforts. The next conference, held virtually at the heels of this one, was organized by a group of activist academic women, who had established, in November 1992 a Women’s Studies Center, largely through the efforts of Dr. Svitlana Kupriashkina, a linguist with some expe rience at the Moscow Gender Studies Center. These women found a temporary home at the Institute of soci ology at the Academy of Sciences, where they had held a number of professional events, listening to papers and participating in lively scholarly discussions. The Wo men’s Studies conference was held at the House of the Scholars, between June 17, 1993 and June 20, 1993. It was planned as a small conference, about forty partici pants, with the written papers circulated ahead of the conference, and discussions geared more to theory than to practice. Among the invited participants were women studies specialists from the USA and from Russia. Both of these groups had much more experience in the field than the Ukrainian scholars, and it was therefore some what of a disappointment that the Russian scholars, about whom one reads in the United States, were more interested in discussing their personal experiences than the subjects they had signed up to speak about. On the other hand, these are the first steps in women’s studies in this area, and a situation similar to that in the United States of the 1960-s when this same type of individual assertion was standard for us. The atmosphere at this conference was frank and open, and there was even some discussion of the negative influence of colonial ism upon women in the dominant country as well as in the colonies. It was gratifying to note the building up of a women’s scholars network; Ukraine, as much as all of Eastern Europe, needs it badly. And it is particularly laudable that Ukrainian women themselves were organ izing women’s studies in Ukraine. The last conference of this season was organized by S o y u z U k ra in o k , a society of Ukrainian women committed to the traditional values of Ukrainian women in service of God and country. Jointly with the World Federation of Ukrainian Women, S o y u z U k ra in o k organ ized a massive conference which touched upon all issues related to the state, the family, women and children. President Anna Krawczuk was among the invited speakers and her crisp, meaningful, and concise state ment on the work of UNWLA was warmly welcomed. This gathering placed great stress on the difficulties of instituting Ukrainian as the official language of Ukraine and called upon more work in the training of teachers, especially of the secondary schools. They demanded that the government should formulate a “concept of national education and its realization in all educational establishments in Ukraine.” The whole edu cational system they felt should be imbued with a patrio tic and Christian approach. They tied closely the wel fare of the family to the effective functioning of the state, and argued for tighter laws against prostitution and narcotics. They demanded welfare support for the needy and the creation of additional schools. They offered to help the Ministry of Defense in raising the 16 ’’НАШЕ Ж ИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 1994 July 1993, Kyyiv. From left: Atena Pashko — president of Soyuz Ukrainok of Ukraine, Oksana Sokolyk — president of WFUWO, Dr. Denysenko. Photos courtesy Anna Krawczuk. 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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