Global perspective Human stories

Ukraine's transition poses different challenges for men and women - UN report

Ukraine's transition poses different challenges for men and women - UN report

Ukrainian women face a society that disempowers them and strongly supports patriarchal values, while men have assumed heavy socioeconomic burdens that may shorten their life spans significantly, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says in a new report.

The Government is working to meet these social challenges, according to the UNDP report on the country's transition to democracy and a market economy.

Citing startling statistics on gender imbalance, the report notes that in 2002 the number of men who died between the ages of 25 and 29 was almost four times higher than the number of women in this category.

The burden of transforming the society's public life seems to have fallen disproportionately on men, whose average life span is 62 years compared to 73 years for women, says the report, Gender Issues in Ukraine: Challenges and Opportunities.

Paralleling this, half of the women who finish high school go on to college, but they get wages 30 per cent lower than those of men and are relegated to less important jobs, according to UNDP. There are no women in top government positions and for every one woman member of Parliament, there are 19 men.

In the family, women carry heavy responsibilities and deserve equal rights, it says. They head 60 per cent of urban families and in rural areas they work in agriculture for themselves and for others, do the housework and take care of the children.

The Government has committed to halving the wage gap between men and women by 2015. Responding to the fact that Ukraine has the largest number of sexually exploited women and children in Europe, the country is becoming one of the continent's most active governments in the fight against human trafficking.

UNDP Resident Representative Douglas Gardner said Ukraine must pursue its efforts to achieve gender equality. "This is an issue of developing a new model of society where women truly participate in the life of the country, independently and deliberately deciding their futures, raising families, developing careers and, as a result, living more productive and fulfilling lives."