Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Publicación cientíca en formato digital
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185
Depósito legal pp 197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.40 N° 74
2022
Recibido el 13/07/22 Aceptado el 25/08/22
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
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Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
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Vol. 40, Nº 74 (2022), 425-439
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Gender policy within social and labor
relations: international and legal aspect
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4074.23
Mykola Inshyn *
Daryna Svitovenko **
Armenui Telestakova ***
Olena Druchek ****
Anna Sukhareva *****
Abstract
The article aims to dene the sectoral legal tools that can
be incorporated into the legislations of the countries of the
world for the development of gender policies in social and labor
relations. The research methodology included methods of general
and special scientic character, which aim to ensure the unity
of approaches. Attention has been paid to the justication of
subjective dierentiation of working conditions in the acts of the
International Labor Organization. Legal conditions for the introduction of
gender equality in legal systems were proposed in order to ensure the social
and economic development of society. It is concluded that international
standards of social and labor relations make it possible to implement
gender equality policy in various variable models. Finally, among the
special sectoral tools for solving gender problems, it is worth applying:
subjective and social dierentiation of working conditions; gender-neutral
legislation; local acts as a method of raising the level of moral and ethical
standards in professional groups, and; gender quotas and gender parity
with dierentiation in various spheres of economic activity.
Keywords: gender; gender policy; gender neutral legislation; social and
labor relations; dierentiation of working conditions.
* Doctor in Law, Professor, Academician of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Honored
Lawyer of Ukraine, Head of the Department of Labor and Social Security Law Taras Shevchenko
National University of Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9332-0286
** Graduate Student of the Department of Labor Law and rights of social security of Kyiv Taras Shevchenko
National University, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0032-9332-0286
*** PhD. in Law, Associate professor, Head of Private and Public Law Department, Kyiv National University
of Technologies and Design, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3371-9137
**** PhD. in Law, Associate professor of the Department of Legal Support of the National Guard of Ukraine,
Kyiv Institute of the National Guard of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-
0002-7460-8137
***** PhD. in Law, Associate Professor of the Department of Administrative Police, Odessa State
University of Internal Aairs, Odessa, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0096-1103
426 Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
Política de género en las relaciones sociales y
laborales: aspecto internacional y legal
Resumen
El artículo tiene por objeto denir las herramientas jurídicas sectoriales
que pueden incorporarse a las legislaciones de los países del mundo para
el desarrollo de políticas de género en las relaciones sociales y laborales.
La metodología de la investigación incluyó métodos de carácter cientíco
general y especial, que tienen como objetivo asegurar la unidad de los
enfoques. Se ha prestó atención a la justicación de la diferenciación subjetiva
de las condiciones de trabajo en los actos de la Organización Internacional
del Trabajo. Se propusieron condiciones legales para la introducción de la
igualdad de género en los ordenamientos jurídicos a n de garantizar el
desarrollo social y económico de la sociedad. Se concluye que los estándares
internacionales de relaciones sociales y laborales permiten implementar la
política de igualdad de género en diversos modelos variables. Finalmente,
entre las herramientas sectoriales especiales para resolver los problemas
de género, vale la pena aplicar: la diferenciación subjetiva y social de las
condiciones de trabajo; legislación neutra en cuanto al género; los actos
locales como método para elevar el nivel de los estándares morales y éticos
en los grupos profesionales, y; cuotas de género y paridad de género con
diferenciación en varias esferas de actividad económica.
Palabras clave: género; política de género; legislación neutra en cuanto
al género; relaciones sociales y laborales; diferenciación
de las condiciones de trabajo.
Introduction
Social and labor relations are the main way for citizens to realize the
right to work all over the world and, accordingly, the right to social security
in case of specic social risks. At the same time, there is still a certain gap
between the real opportunities of women and men in the social and labor
sphere. Since the level of social security services for citizens mainly depends
on the quality and duration of labor relations, then the policy of legal
levelling-o the position of women and men in social and labor relations
was and remains one of the practical tasks for the international community
and national authorities of the world countries.
The construction and development of democratic, legal, social states is
impossible without the implementation of gender policy, which requires
coordinated actions and systemic approaches at the level of international
legal acts, in particular those that dene international labor and social
427
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 425-439
standards. The relevance of gender aspects for the realization of social
rights must be considered not as means of material or nancial support
of citizens, but as a set of rights that establish, guarantee, implement and
protect a decent standard of a person’s living.
Therefore, gender policy is one of the means of preventing and combating
poverty and social exclusion of people based on gender. The fact that gender
issues are the subject matter of legal regulation in international legal acts of
the United Nations (UN), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the
Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) indicates that the sphere
of social and labor relations is topical in the social area of human existence.
The purpose of this article is to dene the sectoral legal tools that can be
included into national legislation of the world countries for the development
of gender policy within social and labor relations.
1. Methodology of the study
The research was conducted on the basis of the latest scientic
publications on gender issues and international legal acts covering the legal
mechanisms for the implementation of gender policy. The methodology
of this research includes methods of general and special scientic nature,
which are aimed at ensuring the unity of epistemological, ontological and
axiological approaches.
The dialectical method was used to determine the essence of subjectival
and social dierentiation of working conditions in the acts of the
International Labour Organization. System analysis was used to determine
the relationship between the possibilities of realizing the right to work and
the right to social security services for women and men. Theoretical and
prognostic method was used in the process of formulating approaches
to the improvement of the national gender policy with the application of
sectoral legal tools.
Suggestions for improving social and labor legislation based on the
principle of equality between women and men in their rights, dierentiation
of working conditions and the application of gender-neutral legislation
are methodologically built on the categories and methods of formal logic:
denition, proof, judgment, analysis, synthesis, analogy, comparison,
generalization, etc.
2. Analysis of recent research
Scientic studies demonstrate that the following relevant manifestations
of gender inequality are currently observed:
428
Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
1. Dierences in the duration of working hours, i.e., “Women are less
likely than men to be in full-time employment” (Mathieu Boniol et
al., 2019: 1);
2. “Occupational dierentiation between men and women as well as
a set of other factors related to underestimation of women holding
management positions” (Kostiuchenko et al., 2020: 2813);
3. Women report experiencing widespread discrimination across
many areas of their lives with public, private, or governmental
institutions – including in health care, the workplace, and higher
education, as well as in personal interactions through gender slurs,
microaggressions, and harassment (Fisher et al., 2019);
4. “The gender pay gap may be increased and this may reduce the
participation of women in the labor force” (Sauré et al., 2014: 17);
5. “Gender occupational and industrial segregation leads to a widening
of the gender gap in employment” (Mansour et al., 2022: 102149).
It is also scientically sound to conclude that with a higher impact of
trade liberalization, the simple gender wage gap is reduced and the nal
wage gap is increased. Scholars substantiate that:
The reduction in the gender labor force participation gap was driven by higher
entry of women, in particular more educated women, and exit of the less educated
men. This results in intrahousehold adjustments in work dynamics, with women
entering the labor force to oset the lost income of male partners who left the labor
force... trade liberalization increased female workers’ unemployment rate and
reliance on part-time jobs (Besedeš et al., 2021: 574).
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Model approach to gender policy
Socially useful work is one of the main sources of ensuring human life.
At the same time, various approaches to ensuring equal rights of women
and men in the sphere of labor and social security are implemented in the
context of social and labor relations in democratic states at the national
level. Taking into account the fact that the female part of the population
in some places, on the background of gender inequality, needs additional
support from the state, democratic states have been implemented specic
concepts of gender policy at the state level for a long time, which are also
reected in the legislation regulating social and labor relations.
It is inherent in a democratic society to choose the directions and vectors
of its development, and therefore, the models of gender policy in various
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countries dier. The variability of gender policy in the world community
demonstrates that the modeling of the national model of gender policy allows
taking into account specic features of national development and national
traditions. At the same time, the construction of a national gender policy
based on fundamental world models allows ensuring the implementation of
a general international policy focused on preventing manifestations of any
discrimination, particularly based on gender, etc.
Scholars distinguish four main approaches to gender equality. The rst
is the so-called formally egalitarian model inherent in the United States.
Obligations regarding gender equality are legally enshrined within its
framework, where the state is only partially sponsoring projects in this
area. The second is a real egalitarian model introduced, for example, in the
Scandinavian countries, where activities in this direction are institutionally
and nancially ensured at the state level. The third is a model of economic
development, which includes an extensive system of assistance to working
women. It exists in a number of Eastern European countries, for example,
in Hungary. The fourth is a model of traditional family values, for example,
like in Japan (Kormych, 2011).
Therefore, gender rights are not only a part of gender policy, but also a
tool to ensure the levelling-o the position of women and men, in particular
with the aim of ensuring a sucient standard of living. Model approaches to
dening the gender policy of the world countries take into account national
traditions.
For example, the state minimally interferes in relations between
employers and employees in the USA. At the same time, the employee’s
social security results from the quality and duration of his / her
employment relationship, but not from the level of state nancial support.
The provision of gender equality in legislation is proclaimed in the USA in
order to overcome the real gender gaps in social and labor relations, but
such equality for women requires certain restrictions from them, which are
sometimes contradictory in the context of career growth and motherhood.
Gender equality in the Scandinavian countries is achieved by state support
for women, which is ensured by state paternalism. State intervention in the
regulation of social and labor relations in this model also has a paternalistic
character. At the same time, the implementation of a real egalitarian model
is quite often accompanied by the professional segregation of women.
Despite the originality and dierence in ways to ensure gender equality,
the model approach to gender policy allows improving the national
legislation of states taking into account national traditions and providing
dierent ways of levelling-o the legal position of women and men in the
labor and social spheres.
430
Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
It is important to note that the gender policy of the democracies of the
world embrace gender planning as an active approach to planning, where
the gender principle is used as the main variable or main criterion, which
seeks to integrate a direct gender dimension into the policy or activities.
The basic conditions for the development and implementation of a gender
policy are also ensured through gender inspections, which are subjected
to any policy suggestions in order to ensure the avoidance of all possible
gender-discriminatory eects arising from this policy, as well as with the
purpose to promote gender equality (Glossary of labor law and social and
labor relations (with reference to the experience of the European Union),
International Labour Organization, 2006: 89, 87).
So, we can state that gender policy is one of the tools of civilizational
development of society. This policy is aimed at forming the main dominant
in society regarding the free disposal of a person’s own abilities and the
awareness that dierent behavior and dierent aspirations of women
and men are supported equally. But the policy alone is not enough for the
implementation of gender equality.
The state must establish specic rules of conduct for the participants in
social relations at the level of legislation in order its implementation. And
the sphere of social and labor relations is no exception. At the same time,
the specics of the national legislation of various states of the world require
certain uniform standards for regulatory provisions in matters of ensuring
gender equality. International and legal acts can be currently considered as
such standards, and these unied approaches are established in the system
of social and labor relations by the ILO acts.
3.2. Basic international standards of gender equality
The UN was the primer initiator of the development and implementation
of the principle of gender equality. It was this international organization
that contributed to the full involvement of women in economic activity on a
par with men. The preamble of the UN Charter states:
We the peoples of the United Nations determined... to rearm faith in
fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the
equality of men and women... to establish the conditions under which justice and
respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international
law can be maintained… (United Nations Charter, 1945: preamble).
Articles 1 and 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights state that
all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Everyone should
have all rights and all freedoms, in particular regardless of sex (Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948: Articles 1, 2).
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The obligations of states regarding non-discrimination of people, in
particular on the basis of gender, are also enshrined in the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women establishes key
international standards for the implementation of the principle of equality
and respect for the human dignity of women on an equal basis with men in
political, social, economic and cultural life.
It should be also noted that the Council of Europe and the European
Community at their territorial level implement gender policy enshrined in
their regulatory legal acts.
Given that European law is a special legal system that exists alongside the
national legal systems of the EU Member States and international law, then
it can be said to some extent that gender rights are the component of basic
international standards. In particular, the Declaration of the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe “On the equality of women and men”
declares the continuation and development of the policy, which is aimed at
achieving true equality of women and men in all spheres of life.
The European Charter for the Equality of Women and Men in the Life
of Local Communities stipulates that the equality of women and men is a
fundamental right. The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence emphasizes
that “the realization of de jure and de facto equality between women and
men is a key element in preventing violence against women” (The Council of
Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women
and Domestic Violence, 2011: preamble).
In general, these regulatory acts are only part of the legal system,
which enshrines the principle of equality between women and men.
International fundamental legal acts generally demonstrate the formation
and development of gender policy in a civilized, democratic world. The
analysis of international acts establishing gender equality makes it possible
to currently highlight the following basic standards in this area:
• The equal right for men and women to use all civil, political,
economic, social and cultural rights for the growth of the well-being
of society and the family.
• The ban of any discrimination against women with the regulatory
establishment of anti-discrimination measures, including
appropriate sanctions.
• Improvement of national legislation, in particular by repealing
existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute
discrimination against women.
432
Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
• Gender equality as a legal phenomenon covers not only the
anatomical and physiological dierences of females and males, but
also the social characteristics of men and women in the context
of family upbringing and maternity as a social function. In this
regard, special measures aimed at protecting maternity are not
discrimination, but act as a mean of subject dierentiation in order
to levelling-o the legal position of men and women.
• Equality of women and men in the eld of professional orientation,
obtaining education and all types of professional training, in
particular, regarding scholarships and other nancial assistance
during studies. Equality of rights of persons of both sexes in the eld
of employment, work, social security, health care, etc., in order to
realize personal abilities and opportunities to provide a decent life
for themselves and their family members.
• The same legal personality of men and women with the same
opportunities for its implementation both while concluding
contracts and managing property, and when applying to state and
non-state institutions for the protection of their rights, in particular
courts and tribunals.
• Protection of women from all forms of violence as a manifestation of
violation of their rights and forms of discrimination, which results
or may result in physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm
or suering to women, including threats of such actions, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, regardless of whether it happens in
public or private life.
The given basic standards of gender equality are not exhaustive. They
form the basis for the development and improvement of the national
legislation of the world democratic states for detailing and expanding the
principle of gender equality.
At the same time, special international institutions and organizations
in various spheres of social life form appropriate standards in the sphere
of their inuence on the basis of selected basic standards. For example, the
ILO is the leading international institution that takes care of establishing
standards in the eld of labor and social security, whose acts have
internationally dened the equality of men and women in the eld of work
since 1919.
3.3. Gender equality and subjectival social dierentiation in the
acts of the International Labour Organization
The principle of gender equality in social and labor relations compared
to international standards in the eld of labor is a relatively new
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phenomenon. However, even when society did not implement a policy of
gender equality, the ILO already declared legal means of levelling-o the
legal position of women and men in the eld of labor. At the current stage of
the development of civilization, it is safe to say that gender equality was rst
of all actualized at the level of socio-economic human rights, the rights of
the second generation, which are related to the improvement of the socio-
economic status of women.
A number of the ILO Conventions are focused on levelling-o the legal
status of women and men. Such ILO Conventions include: Maternity
Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3); Night Work (Women) Convention,
1919 (No. 4); Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No.
41); Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1946 (No. 89); Equal
Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100); Social Security (Minimum
Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102); Maternity Protection Convention
(Revised), 1952 (No. 103); Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Convention, 1958 (No. 111); Convention concerning Equal Opportunities
and Equal Treatment for Men and Women Workers: Workers with Family
Responsibilities, 1981 (No. 156); Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171)
and others.
It is worth noting that gender equality of women and men in social
and labor relations is mainly ensured by the operation of the principle of
“unity and dierentiation of legal regulation”, which allows levelling-o
the legal position of women and men in accordance with the grounds of
dierentiation of legal labor regulation: 1) objective; 2) subjective; 3) social.
For example, the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3)
established the working conditions of women in industrial enterprises,
in particular regarding the right not to work and to leave work with the
payment of benets before and after childbirth, as well as the right to an
additional break during working hours days for breastfeeding (the ILO
Maternity Protection Convention, 1919 (No. 3).
Granting such rights to a woman is primarily due to the objective
physiological functions of the female body. Further consolidation of
international standards regarding the working conditions of women at
industrial enterprises, such as: mines, quarries, construction enterprises,
processing enterprises, etc., took place with the consolidation of the
dierentiation of the level of work of women and men, primarily with the
aim of preserving the reproductive functions of women and the ability to
perform her social function – maternity.
Maternity, as a key social role of a woman in society, serves as the basis
for social dierentiation of woman’s working conditions and her social
security, in particular for the period before and after childbirth. Maternity
at the international level is recognized as requiring additional protection,
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Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
and in this regard, a number of social and labor rights are provided for
women employed in industrial and non-industrial enterprises, engaged in
agricultural work, as well as housewives, which act as means of levelling-
o the position of women compared to men in the process of performing a
mother’s function. At the same time, maternity care covers:
1. restrictions for the employer regarding the use of the labor of
mothers in certain jobs, the granting of leave in connection with
pregnancy and childbirth;
2. medical care, including care and observation before, during and
after childbirth, provided by qualied medical personnel;
3. nancial and material support of a woman in connection with
pregnancy and childbirth. The international standard in the eld
of labor regarding the mentioned monetary and material assistance
enshrines a woman’s right to such material support. At the same time,
the ILO does not indicate to its Member States the specic sources
of nancing such payments, noting that monetary and material
assistance is provided either from the funds of the mandatory social
insurance system or from state funds (The ILO Maternity Protection
Convention (No. 103), 1952).
The problem of gender equality for women is mainly present in
professional activities and in family and domestic relations (Bass et al.,
2021). At the same time, the development of gender policy in democratic
states also inuenced the improvement of international standards in the
eld of social and labor relations.
In order to overcome gender problems in the eld of work, neutrality
in the conceptual apparatus is increasingly used when formulating the
provisions of international acts. Gender-neutral legislation is being
formed, where the employee’s gender is maximally leveled as a condition
for access to one or another right. A bright example of such gender-neutral
legislation in the social and labor sphere is the right of employees with
family responsibilities.
Gender-neutral legislation in the social and labor sphere does not replace
legislation with the conditions of subjectival and social dierentiation of
the work of men and women. It gives men and women equal opportunities
to fulll their family responsibilities in those parts of social and labor
relations, where it is possible. For example, both a woman (the child’s
mother, grandmother) and a man (the child’s father, grandfather) can take
care leave in Ukraine before the child reaches the age of three.
In fact, when talking about gender rights and political ways of their
implementation, it is necessary to proceed not from the position of equality
or identity of the rights and duties of women and men, but from the fact
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that these are tools for levelling-o the legal position of people of both
genders. The policy in this context acts as a kind of tool for introducing the
leading ideas of modernity, which embody justice, freedom, democracy and
equality. It is worth emphasizing that international standards in the eld of
labor and social security convince that gender equality as an embodiment of
justice and counteracting manifestations of discrimination based on gender
includes:
• equality of men and women in the realization of rights and
responsibilities, in particular in social and labor relations;
• dierentiation for realizing the rights and obligations on the basis of:
1) objectively physiological dierences between the male and female
body; 2) social dierentiation caused by a woman’s performance of
her social role in society – maternity;
• gender-neutral legislation, which creates legal conditions for the
realization of a number of social and labor rights regardless of
gender, in particular for employees with family responsibilities.
This approach allows accomplishing the levelling-o the legal position
of men and women, which in its essence is a manifestation of justice. For
example, if the right to take care of a child before reaching a certain age
can be used by both a man and a woman, social leave in connection with
pregnancy and childbirth can be granted only to a woman for objective
physiological reasons. At the same time, the right to free choice of occupation
and profession is exercised on the basis of equality.
3.4. Legal conditions for the introduction of gender equality
into national legal systems to ensure social and economic
development of society
Based on the fact that socially useful work is the basis of the socio-
economic development of society, each state tries to create such a legal
regulation of labor to ensure the competitive advantages of its labor market
over the labor market of other states.
Therefore, the globalization of the labor market does not prevent the
development of national legislation to attract competitive employees. But,
developing the national labor market and legislation, states should proceed
from the fact that: “The state, declaring human rights as the highest social
value ... must dene the gender equality as an integral part of its state policy.
Only a balanced combination of men and women in one team provides a
competitive advantage” (Samilyk et al., 2021: 7).
According to the analysis of international standards of gender equality,
the national gender policy is based on the choice of a model of gender
equality. At the same time, equal rights of men and women in social and
436 Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
labor relations is more dicult task, because people in the process of socially
useful work realize both their abilities to work and their physiological
characters and social roles. In this regard, there is a need to nd a balance
between the equality of men and women and the subjectival dierentiation
of working conditions. Finally, gender-neutral legislation also acts as a
specic legal mean of levelling-o the legal position of men and women in
social and labor relations.
We believe that there are all the necessary legal tools to overcome modern
manifestations of gender inequality in social and labor relations. Those
tools are capable to improve the national legislation of states regarding
gender equality in social and labor relations.
Thus, in order to minimize the dierences in the duration of working
hours of women and men, it is necessary to implement and develop gender-
neutral rules for determining the duration of working hours, where the
specic number of working hours should be calculated not because of the
employee’s gender, but because of the conditions of production and work
at the workplace.
If we talk about the creation of equal opportunities for men and
women in terms of spending specic time for professional activities with
the fulllment of family responsibilities, then in order of levelling-o the
legal position of men and women, such compensatory mechanisms can
be used as: social benets, social holidays, rules for transferring the next
certication of an employee, state quotas of workplaces at employers,
state monetary compensation to the employer for the costs of professional
development or retraining of a woman after being on maternity leave.
Regarding the professional dierentiation of men and women in the
context of the underestimation of women’s work in managerial positions,
this problem can be solved through direct state intervention in the legal
regulation of labor relations at the legislative level, where it is necessary
to establish gender quotas and gender parity in labor relations. We should
also note that direct state intervention in the social and labor sphere by
establishing gender quotas and gender parity in not all spheres of economic
activity is appropriate, and therefore, the application of these tools should
be applied dierently both in relation to subjects obliged to comply with
such quotas, as well as regarding spheres of economic activity.
That is, if it is possible to talk about gender parity or gender quotas in
the eld of education and science or in state or local authorities, then, for
example, it would not be correct to dictate to the owner of the enterprise a
parity procedure for the formation of management boards in the private
sector of the economy. It is also necessary to assume that gender quotas or
gender parity are not necessarily equal shares of women and men in specic
positions.
437
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 40 Nº 74 (2022): 425-439
Gender quota or gender parity can be determined by a specic ratio, for
example, at least 10% or a third of the total number of the board members.
It is also necessary to remember that a number of management positions
are elective positions. Therefore, it is impossible to force people to choose
their representatives, leaders or managers based on gender.
Regarding the problem of persecution of women and their discrimination,
this problem, in our opinion, requires the construction of an ideological
base of legal education and an increase in the level of moral and ethical
norms in public life. The authorities are the main actors that can directly
inuence the dynamics of gender-based violence by addressing the factors
that increase the incidence of violence against women and girls (Havronska
et al., 2021).
At the same time, eradicating discrimination against women, as well as
the problem of violence against women, is a practical task not only of the
state, but also of non-state institutions and society in the whole. Moral and
ethical standards of public life regarding non-discrimination on the basis
of gender should be raised in society and supported, in particular, by state
programs and regulatory consolidation for professional groups at the level
of local acts.
Overcoming the problem of gender payment gaps is primarily determined
by the division of labor both in the sectoral context and by the division of
job categories, and therefore, the gender payment policy should be based on
regulatory provisions of the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No.
100), where the rule of equal remuneration of men and women for work of
equal value is clearly established (the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention,
1951 (No. 100): 1). Levelling-o the position of men and women, according
to the issue of gender inequality in employment, depending on professional
segregation by professional groups in various spheres of economic activity
and job hierarchy, should probably take place through nancial support of
women employed in less protable spheres of activity.
At the same time, nancial support should correspond to the general
model of social security in the state. It is also worth separately studying
the social compensatory factors of work in non-prot economic spheres,
in particular: establishing a lower work rate due to increased rest time;
establishment of exible work schedules; increasing the social package at
by state support programs, etc.
Conclusion
International standards of social and labor relations allow implementing
the policy of gender equality in various variable models. The tools of labor
438
Mykola Inshyn, Daryna Svitovenko, Armenui Telestakova, Olena Druchek y Anna Sukhareva
Gender policy within social and labor relations: international and legal aspect
law and social security law used in regulating social and labor relations can
be used to improve the national gender policy of the state.
Among special sectoral tools for solving gender problems, it is worth
applying: subjectival and social dierentiation of working conditions;
gender neutral legislation; local acts as a way to raise the level of moral and
ethical standards in professional groups; gender quotas and gender parity
with dierentiation in various spheres of economic activity; the application
of nancial and socially signicant compensatory mechanisms for
levelling-o the position of men and women in labor relations, for example,
establishing a lower work rate due to increased rest time; establishing
exible work schedules; expansion of the social package at the expense of
state support programs, etc.
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Esta revista fue editada en formato digital y publicada
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