On a surface, day-to-day level, the gender dynamic appears straight forward in Ukraine: the women are doing all of the work. They sweep the streets, run the shops, staff the kiosks, guard the art in museums, wait tables in the restaurants and sell their vegetables and wares on the streets. Men are generally seen driving taxis and mashruktas, working construction, in police uniform, and then doing a lot of drinking (at all times of the day and in all locations). In the non-governmental sector regarding issues of family, violence, and health, the gender balance also appears clearly defined: women run most NGOs and the information they produce is geared towards women.
Increasingly, there is recognition that men have to be brought into discussions of family, reproductive health, and domestic violence but the changes are only beginning. Elza Volodymyrivna Leschenko, former head of the National Department of Family and Gender Policy and Demographical Development and present Deputy Head of the Department of Youth Policy, told me that she thought men’s reproductive health was the biggest problem related to gender in Ukraine. Interesting that she cited the fact that there is no Father’s Day in Ukraine as one example of society underemphasizing the role of fathers.
Some of the numbers:
* Life expectancy of men is eleven years less than the average life expectancy of women;
* In the age of 28-44 years, mortality of men is four times higher than that of women and 40% of boys aged 16 do not have the chance to live until they reach their pension age
* Male unemployment in the paid section increases faster than that of females;
* 90 percent of the prisoners are males;
* Suicide is mainly among men;
* A majority of men (57%) after divorce take no responsibility for their children. (Source: UNDP)
Men and Reproductive Health
Dr. Galina Maistruck, director of the Kyiv-based NGO Woman Health and Family Planning said that when a Canadian organization first approached her about working with men in the area of reproductive health, she thought there were few avenues for their involvement. Then the organization did a survey with 1,200 men age 20-35 to find out what they knew about reproductive health, STIs and related topics. The results showed a great deal of ignorance and misinformation and now the organization is re-targeting information to both men and women in schools, doctors’ offices and in public campaigns. Dr. Maistruck said she also gave a seminar for members of the Verhovna Rada about the importance of including men in reproductive health campaigns, creating manuals for family doctors on men’s reproductive health, and creating centers where men can go for counseling and treatment. At present there is one gynecologist or obstetrician for every 3,000 women and 1 doctor for men’s reproductive health for every 50,000 men.
Men Against Violence
In Vinnytsia (three hours southwest of Kyiv) and Kherson (8 hours north of Kyiv) are two branches of Men Against Violence in Ukraine. Vladimir Kozlova, director of Vinnytsia Men Against Violence spoke about the stereotypes facing men as well as women and the lack of outlets for men to openly discuss their problems. It is impossible to say the transition from the Soviet system was more difficult for men or for women, but the lack of socially acceptable “male” jobs has been particularly difficult and led to frustration, alcoholism and aggression. The problem of domestic violence against men has been brought up by several people I have spoken with in Ukraine but there are no services for them to access. Vladimir said that they held seminars and small group discussions for men but had not found a way to engage large groups of men...and he (surprisingly I thought) did not seem to think men would be interested in getting together outside of meeting at bars.
In Kherson, Men Against Violence offers free psychological services for men and women and is starting a ‘young fathers school’ but they said it was hard to tell if there would be much interest. My overall impression of both groups was that they were able to find very little funding for projects working with or targeting men and the majority of their work was working with organizations geared toward women.
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