Over 50,000 Ukrainian Women Volunteer for Military Service... Increasing Roles in Mine Clearance Amid Persistent Gender Inequality

Mine Clearance Training and Camouflage Net Making... Cracks in Gender Role Stereotypes
However, Care Burden Increases and Gender Inequality Worsens Amid War

On the 21st (local time), residents in Konstiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, are lining up in front of a house with a well to collect drinking water.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] In Ukraine, a representative patriarchal society in Eastern Europe, gender role stereotypes are cracking as women are being deployed to the front lines after the war. However, with the caregiving burden still falling on women, their roles have only increased, causing them to suffer from a double burden.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 27th (local time), Hana Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, stated that the number of women who have volunteered for the Ukrainian military has exceeded 50,000. Deputy Minister Maliar explained that this number has significantly increased since the war following Russia's invasion.

Recently, the role of Ukrainian women in the war has been expanding. Women’s roles stand out in the rear of the front lines, such as conducting mine clearance training or making camouflage nets.

Until the Ukrainian Ministry of Welfare officially abolished the designation of prohibited occupations in 2018, mine clearance was a job that Ukrainian women could not perform. Ukraine had classified 450 occupations, including firefighters, train drivers, and welders, as jobs women could not work in, citing harm to women's 'reproductive health' as the reason.

Ukrainian sociologist Anna Khit said, "Generally, perceptions of women were very patriarchal," and analyzed, "With the war that broke out this year, not only has women's activity increased, but it has visibly changed." She added that since the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014, women have increasingly taken on new roles, and this change has been ongoing for some time.

Currently, Ukrainian women are known to be pooling their efforts for the Ukrainian military by cooking for millions of internally displaced persons or raising money to support soldiers. Also, with Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 prohibited from leaving the country, women are volunteering to drive transport vehicles used by the Ukrainian military in other European countries.

However, despite participating as wartime personnel, women have not received the same status, benefits, or recognition as men. Jenny Mathers, a gender and security expert at Aberystwyth University in the UK, pointed out, "Because the main decision-makers and the majority of combatants are men, the increasingly essential role of women in the war is obscured."

Mathers said, "One ongoing fact about the work women do is that it is not recognized but is actually very important," adding, "Even during conflict, many tasks that sustain society are carried out by women."

The war in Ukraine has eased gender role stereotypes and partially expanded participation opportunities for women, but it has also increased the burdens women must bear. Although social structures remain unequal, as women's roles as wartime personnel increase, they experience a double burden.

According to UN Women and the international relief organization CARE International, the war in Ukraine has significantly increased women's caregiving burdens and worsened gender inequality. They also reported that while women have a lower likelihood of dying in combat, they face high risks of everyday violence, widespread destruction, arbitrary detention, and mass displacement as refugees.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.