Women in “big politics”: Gender analysis of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

First of all, the article analyzes the representation of women in the Ukrainian parliament in the international perspective. International databases and reports are used to demonstrate the low level of women’s involvement into the “big politics”. Ukraine has failed to fulfil international obligations of UN Millennium Development Goals on achieving gender equality in the country by 2015. In addition, the author has reviewed the Ukrainian legislation on gender equality in general and in political sphere in particular. Formally, Ukraine has introduced a policy of equal rights and opportunities for women and men in society, which meets international standards. However, according to the results of the gender analysis of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU), the situation with women in the Parliament continues to remain unsatisfactory and far behind the ideas of gender equality. The author discusses the involvement of women in the VRU at the level of party lists, committees, the Apparatus, and permanent delegations. In particular, such problems have been identified: the low level of representation of women in the Verkhovna Rada (12 %), the gender imbalance in the composition of the main political parties of Ukraine, vertical and horizontal gender segregation at the level of the VRU, the under-representation of women among the leadership of permanent delegations, sexist comments among the deputies of the VRU, etc. Finally, the international experience of introducing a gender-sensitive parliament and its application in Ukraine has been studied. It includes such components as the gender legal expertise of legislation, the introduction of a Code of Ethics for deputies for the purposes of countering sexism, the introduction of a gender indicator of the activities of the VRU, etc. After conclusions, three major recommendations have been proposed. First, according to international and national experience, in order to achieve gender balance in the composition of the VRU, including its leadership positions, temporary (supporting) actions for women (for example, gender quotas) should be applied. Secondly, gender equality and non-discrimination, counteraction to sexist statements should be among the fundamental principles of the Code Ethics for deputies of the VRU. Thirdly, it is appropriate to introduce a mandatory and regular gender legal and anti-discrimination review of draft laws in the VRU