Breaking barriers: women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces

Tamara Martsenyuk, Anna Kvit, and Olga Malchevska, moderated by Olesya Khromeychuk, delve into the changes for women in the Ukrainian military, the challenges they have overcome, and the work that still lies ahead. 29 January 2024.
As the nation faced the challenges of Russia’s full-scale war, thousands of women joined the ranks. The ongoing need for mobilisation continues to highlight women’s role in the armed forces. Their participation in the military, however, is not without obstacles. In 2014, legal restrictions hindered women’s recruitment, only to be gradually overturned through persistent lobbying, notably by women veterans. The situation continues to evolve, as do societal attitudes towards female soldiers and veterans.
Speakers
Anna Kvit is a visiting research fellow at University College London, European & International Social and Political Studies Department. Her research experience covers empirical studies on women in the military of Ukraine Invisible Battalion, veterans’ reintegration into civilian life and gendered impacts of the war in Ukraine. She has also participated in the development of the programs and policies on implementation of the Women Peace and Security agenda in Ukraine. Anna worked for international organisations and civil society organisations in Ukraine. She holds a BA degree in Sociology from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine) and MA degree in Global Political Economy from the University of Kassel (Germany).
Olga Malchevska is a BBC News Channel Broadcast Journalist and Ukrainian reporter. In her most recent documentary for BBC, Olga reported on the experience of Ukrainian women fighting in the country’s armed services, Ukraine: Women at War.
Dr Tamara Martsenyuk holds a Ph.D. in sociology, she is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. After evacuating from Kyiv following the full-scale invasion, Tamara was hosted by Free University Berlin. She is also a visiting scholar at Leuphana University (Germany). Her research interest relates to gender and social structure, among them women’s access to the military. In 2015-2021 Tamara was part of the research team that conducted the sociological study “Invisible Battalion” that demonstrated the successes and challenges of gender equality implementation in the Ukrainian armed forces, the status of female veterans, and the problem of sexual harassment in the military.
Moderator
Olesya Khromeychuk is the Director of the Ukrainian Institute London. She is a historian and writer. She has taught the history of East-Central Europe at several British universities, and has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Der Spiegel, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Prospect. Khromeychuk is the author of The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister (2022) and “Undetermined” Ukrainians. Post-War Narratives of the Waffen SS “Galicia” Division (2013).
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[@stephenarmiger8343]

I started watching this yesterday and finished today, March 9, 2024. Very important topics. My father married my mother after he graduated from Officer Candidate School and while he was in tank school. He went off to fight in Italy and was wounded at Anzio. He survived the war. My parents began making a family. I was the second of four boys. Around the time that I was nine years old in the fourth grade, the impact of the war began to take its toll on our family. My father’s mental health deteriorated, he no longer worked, my mother who had a high school education had to figure out how to hold the family together. Daddy was in the mental section of a veterans hospital receiving electroshock therapy. As difficult as this was, it is incomparable to women veterans coming home. Excellent that this conversation is taking place. For my father, there were no conversations. We children were not told anything. Figuring out what to tell the children. How to talk to the children will be hard, but it must be done.

[@stephenarmiger8343]

As I am a resident of the United States, I am unable to access the BBC conversation. Perhaps someone will find a way to upload it to CZcams. Thank you all for this.