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additing to ensuring legal equity and equality, is to “develop and integrate into the overall programs of legal training of the population issues focusing on the socio- legal status of women in society.” The demands directed to the educational establish ments of the country were particularly significant. They need to be quoted in full: To develop a strategy for the articulation and for mation of the new world view that fosters the study of democracy [it is necessary] to develop an objective understanding and acceptance of issues of the history and current issues of women’s movement, the position of women in society. [It is necessary] to introduce pertinent educational pro grams, textbooks and curricula that would strive to achieve this goal. To support research, espe cially in sociology, psychology and gender issues, that will raise the status of women in society.10 The Ministry of Media was asked to develop pro grams that would promote the discussion of gender issues and foster a more positive image of women in the media. Regional council representatives were also en couraged to study these issues and insure some imple mentation of the UN convention. The Parliament noted but did not accept the recom mendations. Speaker Moroz in his closing remarks assured the audience that Ukraine will honor the con vention, especially in so far as it treats women as moth ers and women as women. Parliamentary Chairmen do not often hear the arguments made in the House. These parliamentary hearings, despite their short comings and brevity, mark a new step in bringing Ukrainian women into political discourse and public life. The growth and awareness of the women’s movement is predicated on economic, ecological and societal con cerns, although it is often expressed in national patriotic rhetoric. Feminism has little impact on the establish ment of women’s organizations in Ukraine. The goals of women’s liberation and self-actuali zation are rarely voiced openly by either younger or older women in Ukraine. In good historical fashion, the women are subordinating their welfare to the common goal, and the common goal is liberation — liberation from the fear of totalitarian terror, liberation from cen tralized bureaucracy and liberation from econoimc scar city. Most women seem to oppose militarization, but not necessarily central economic planning. They are also opposed to social experimentation and at times seem to idealize some idyllic conception of decency, morality, family values; they write much about the pedagogical role of the women as the exponent of moral value and bemoan the reduction of women under the late socialist regime to materialistically greedy creatures. Yet many women, as many men, are convinced that a major func tion of the government is to assure a decent existence for its citizens. Disillusionment with democratic politics and the deteriorating economic condition contributed to the unwillingness of women to run for office, and led to the defeat of many of those who did. Awareness of women’s rights in the face of patriar chal control is emerging very slowly. Feminism, in the sense of the assertion of women’s rights and of self liberation, is not easily understood in Ukraine, where the woman (even more than the man) was raised in the tradition of service and self dedication to others or to an ideal. This was true regardless of the ideology of the dominant group — women saw themselves as serving an entity beyond the self. Pursuit of individual happi ness is still not a popular or openly desired cultural trait in Ukraine, nor is it considered a valid goal for an indi vidual. The goal for women is not emancipation or lib eration, but rather, as had been the goal of early Ameri can women activists, the welfare of their community, making life better for others. Society in Ukraine is a society in which family structures, personal relation ships, and traditional social relations determine world views and expectations. Western democracy, with its stress on personal initiative and personal responsibility, with its impersonal relations embedded in law, with its self-discipline and its work ethic, is understood by most former Soviets as a system of communal liberation, not of individual opportunity. This process is similar to the manner in which Eastern Europeans, at the beginning of the century, defined feminism as community action, rather than women’s liberation. 7. N airobi C onference to end discrim ination of w om en was held in July 1985. U kraine was represented by com m unist w om en from G orbachev’s restructuring cam p. W ell off, secure in the conviction of th eir just claim to superior status, these w om en th ou ght they enjoyed th e fruits of life. T h eir under standing of w om en’s issues did not go beyond M arxist cant, but th eir exposure to non-soviet reality, even in the m eeting room s of various w om en’s conferences, dem onstrated to them that th eir own Soviet good life had a long way to go to reach basic am enities of the so-called west. 8. “R ecom m endations of th e participants of the Parliam en tary hearings. Proposed by the O rganized C om m ittee to hold Parliam entary hearings, the C om m ittee on Hum an Rights, rights of national m inorities and inter-ethnic relations,” Kiev, 1995, p. 3. 9. Ibid. p. 3-4. 10. Ibid. p. 9. (This article originally appeared in Transitions which is published by the Open M edia Research Institute. Vol. 1. No. 16. Septem ber 1995.) 18 ’’НАШЕ Ж И ТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 1995 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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