Ukraine Gender Review Are To

34975 Public Disclosure Authorized UKRAINE GENDER REVIEW Public Disclosure Authorized by Nora Dudwick Radhika Srinivasan, Jeanine Braithwaite Public Disclosure Authorized ECSSD February 2002 Public Disclosure Authorized TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................4 BACKGROUND: TEN YEARS OF TRANSITION .........................................................4 OBJECTIVES OF THIS REVIEW ................................................................................5 METHODS............................................................................................................6 GENDER AND POVERTY IN UKRAINE: 2000.............................................8 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................8 POVERTY RATES, GENDER, AGE, AND HOUSEHOLD TYPE ...................................11 LOCATION AND GENDER....................................................................................12 MATERIAL POVERTY: NUTRITION AND HOUSING.................................................12 Malnutrition .................................................................................................13 Housing type, ownership, and access to services.........................................14 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.....................................................................15 TABLES..............................................................................................................16 GENDER AND THE UKRAINIAN LABOR MARKET................................25 BEFORE AND AFTER 1991 ..................................................................................25 GENDER PATTERNS OF EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT .............................26 CHANGING GENDER PATTERNS WITHIN AND BETWEEN SECTORS .......................28 THE RURAL SECTOR...........................................................................................32 NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEN AND WOMEN: THE PRIVATE SECTOR ...............34 THE INFORMAL SECTOR: THE SHUTTLE TRADE ..................................................36 DISCRIMINATION IN THE LABOR MARKET..........................................................38 FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS............................................................................41 HEALTH IMPACTS OF TRANSITION FOR MEN AND WOMEN ...........42 THE MALE HEALTH CRISIS: RISING MORTALITY AMONG MEN ............................42 THE SUICIDE EPIDEMIC ......................................................................................43 SMOKING AND PREMATURE DEATH...................................................................43 WOMEN'S HEALTH DURING THE TRANSITION.....................................................45 Stereotypes and realities ..............................................................................45 Reproductive health.....................................................................................46 GENDER TRENDS IN INFECTIOUS AND SEXUALLY-TRANSMITTED ILLNESSES .......46 DIFFERENTIAL GENDER IMPACTS ON YOUTH .....................................................47 Alcohol, drugs and violence among boys.....................................................47 A dearth of sex education ............................................................................48 Girls: Unwanted pregnancies, STDs, and prostitution................................48 FINDINGS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS................................................................49 CHANGING GENDER RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE FAMILY...........51 2 THE DEMOGRAPHIC PICTURE .............................................................................51 GENDER ROLES IN THE FAMILY, DIVORCE AND CUSTODY...................................51 FINDING AND IMPLICATIONS..............................................................................52 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ABUSE AND TRAFFICKING.............54 POLITICAL PARTICIPATION ........................................................................59 UNEQUAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN HIGHER OFFICE...............................59 WOMEN’S NGOS IN UKRAINE...........................................................................60 FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS............................................................................62 CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................63 FINDINGS ...........................................................................................................63 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BANK AND OTHER DONORS..........................................65 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................68 ANNEX I: REGIONAL CONSULTATIONS..................................................71 ANNEX II: FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANTS ..............................................73 ANNEX III: STUDY OF KHARKIV SHUTTLE TRADERS................ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. 3 INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND: TEN YEARS OF TRANSITION Since the late 1980s, Ukraine has undergone a number of fundamental political, economic and social changes. There are regional variations, particularly between the rural and urban areas, but since independence, Ukraine has experienced “one of the most severe economic declines of any country in this century.”1 During that time, national income declined about 60 percent, real incomes dropped sharply, as did social indicators, and 27 percent of the population found itself below the poverty line.2 After a decade of “missed opportunities and great disappointments on the economic and social front,”3 however, indications are that the economy may have begun to turn around. The Government’s pro-reform program, budget surplus, and improved 2000 economic performance provide some basis for optimism. Indeed, 2000 was the first year of GDP growth since independence, and among the emerging small and medium enterprise sector, there was “almost universal growth in value added activities.”4 Thus, despite continuing concerns over the difficult institutional environment and the strength of vested interests in Ukraine, there are voices in Government and civil society committed to fundamental reforms. The 2000 CAS therefore focused on building demand for better governance and seizing available opportunities to increase the supply of better, development-oriented institutions. It is hoped that this report will contribute to both building blocks by suggesting useful guidelines to help ensure that no-one is excluded from emerging opportunities on the basis of gender. In the following discussion, we use gender to refer to the ways people in society interpret sexual differences, and the socially learned behaviors, expectations and identities associated with males and females. Gender, like race, ethnicity or class, is a social category that profoundly shapes the way in which an individual participates in society and the economy. Thus, gender roles and relationships are relevant to development, because they can open up or severely limit economic, political and or social opportunities. While the nature and extent of gender inequities varies worldwide, nowhere do women and girls enjoy parity with men in access to and control of resources, in economic participation or political voice. But although “women and girls bear the largest and most direct costs of these inequities, gender disparities detrimentally affect the welfare of everyone in society.”5 It is therefore essential to give voice to 1 Ukraine: Restoring Growth with Equity: A Participatory Country Economic Memorandum. The World Bank. October 1999. 2 Country Assistance Strategy for Ukraine. The World Bank. August 16, 2000. The poverty figure given here is based on consumption that is 75 percent of median. 3 Ukraine: Social Safety Nets and Poverty. Volume I. The World Bank. ECSHD. June 15, 2001. 4 Max Yacoub, Bohdan Senchuk, and Taras Tkachenko. Ukrainian Enterprises in 2000: An IFC Survey of Ukrainian Business. IFC. May 2001. 5 Engendering Development: Policy Research Report on Gender and Development. The World Bank. 2000. 4 both men and women in the exploration of gender relations and their implications for development. The evolution of gender relations in Ukraine is complex. During the Soviet period, Ukrainian men and women enjoyed equal access to education and employment, and women participated in government, enjoyed generous maternity leave and other child-related benefits, and rights to early retirement and pension. For the most part (except for protective labor legislation that excluded women from “dangerous” but also highly paid and benefited jobs), legislation treated women and men equally. Throughout the Soviet period, however, widespread conservatism undercut the liberating aspects of gender equality; women continued to bear primary responsibility for the family, giving rise to the infamous “double burden” of work and housework that handicapped women. Women’s representation on political bodies notwithstanding, their real power remained limited and men overwhelmingly dominated in the higher echelons of power. As Hefte neatly summarizes it: “Lenin promised equality to women; Stalin mobilized a massive workforce of women while reversing many of Lenin’s reforms directed at benefiting women; and Gorbachev, through perestroika and glasnost, unintentionally lowered the standard of living and intentionally promoted the return of women to the hearth in order to

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