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
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Vol.41 N° 77
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Vol. 41, Nº 77 (2023), 184-204
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Implementation of an eective system
for monitoring the application of gender
equality policy: Experience from European
Union countries
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4177.13
Alina Liasota *
Yuliia Kobets **
Kateryna Dobkina ***
Valentyna Yakubina ****
Vadim Penyuk *****
Abstract
The European Union has been pursuing the policy aimed
at achieving equality between women and men for a long
time. The adoption of the Law “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men” is an important step forward.
However, the aspects of the control of compliance with the legislation in
the eld of gender policy remain poorly advanced and need to be adapted
following the experience of developed European countries. The aim of this
article was to outline the legislative mechanism for ensuring equal rights
and opportunities for women and men, and to compare it with European
legislative experience and practice. During the research, the methods of
analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction and comparative analysis
were used. As a result of the research, the mechanism for ensuring equal
rights and opportunities in Ukraine was determined; the bodies, institutions
and organizations empowered in the specied area were described along
with the main aspects of gender equality legislation in Ukraine. It is
* PhD., in Political Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Politology, Faculty of Social
Sciences and International Relations, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, 49010, Dnipro,
Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0130-8421
** PhD., in Political Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Institutions and
Processes, Faculty of History, Politology and International Relations, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian
National University, 76018, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-
9492-6119
*** Doctor of Law Sciences, Dean of Faculty of Law, Institute of Management, Technology and Law,
State University of Infrastructure and technologies, 04071, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0003-2627-8871
**** PhD in Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Theoretical and Practical
Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 01033, Kyiv,
Ukraine. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8747-0336
***** Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Sociology and Law (FSP), National Technical
University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, 03056, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID ID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1136-6596
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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concluded that government ocials can use the results obtained during the
research to improve some legislative aspects of control over gender policy
implementation.
Keywords: gender policy; discrimination; control system; equal rights;
stereotypes.
Implementación de un sistema efectivo para el
monitoreo de la aplicación de la política de igualdad de
género: Experiencia de los países de la Unión europea
Resumen
La Unión Europea ha seguido la política destinada a lograr la igualdad
entre mujeres y hombres durante mucho tiempo. La aprobación de la Ley
«sobre la garantía de la igualdad de derechos y oportunidades para mujeres
y hombres» es un importante paso adelante. Sin embargo, los aspectos
del control del cumplimiento de la legislación en el campo de la política
de género siguen estando poco avanzados y deben adaptarse siguiendo
la experiencia de los países europeos desarrollados. El objetivo de este
artículo fue esbozar el mecanismo legislativo para garantizar la igualdad
de derechos y oportunidades para mujeres y hombres, y compararlo con
la experiencia y la práctica legislativa europeas. Durante la investigación
se utilizaron los métodos de análisis y síntesis, deducción e inducción y
análisis comparativo. Como resultado de la investigación, se determinó
el mecanismo para garantizar la igualdad de derechos y oportunidades
en Ucrania; se describieron los órganos, instituciones y organizaciones
empoderados en el área especicada junto a los principales aspectos de
la legislación sobre igualdad de género en Ucrania. Se concluye que los
funcionarios gubernamentales pueden utilizar los resultados obtenidos
durante la investigación para mejorar algunos aspectos legislativos del
control sobre la implementación de la política de género.
Palabras clave: política de género; discriminación; sistema de control;
igualdad de derechos; estereotipos.
Introduction
Equality between women and men is dened as one of the fundamental
principles in the European Union (EU). It follows that the introduction and
observance of an eective gender policy is one of the keys to the successful
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Alina Liasota, Yuliia Kobets, Kateryna Dobkina, Valentyna Yakubina y Vadim Penyuk
Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
integration of Ukraine into the EU, which, among other things, makes the
subject of this study current and relevant.
However, the main task of gender policy in the Ukraine and other
countries is to achieve real equality between women and men, as well as
other groups of variable identity for the sake of comfortable coexistence
without gender discrimination, dignied treatment, respect and security,
which will ultimately lead to economic growth through the use of the
potential of all population groups and raising the standard of living.
Aspects of gender equality are widely covered in a number of studies
conducted by Ukrainian and foreign researchers. The equality of rights
and opportunities of women and men were studied in the context of their
impact on virtually all aspects of socio-political life, in particular in the eld
of science, medicine and health, social and economic spheres, in the eld
of education and employment, etc (Semenyshyn et al., 2020). Most of the
researchers outline the aspects of gender policy making, as well as the main
problems in this area, and barriers to the development. However, issues
related to the mechanisms and ensuring the appropriate level of control
over the implementation of gender policy remain poorly studied.
So, the aim of this study is to outline the legislative mechanism for
ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, and to
compare it with European experience and legislative practice to determine
the main problems, in particular those related to the control system,
regarding the achievement of gender equality in Ukraine and the ways of
their overcoming. The aim involved the fullment of the following research
objectives:
• outline the mechanism for ensuring equal rights and opportunities
for women and men in Ukraine;
• describe the bodies, institutions and organizations empowered
to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men in
Ukraine, as well as their main functions and powers;
• identify the main aspects of legislating gender equality in
Europe in the context of the study of historical documents and
recommendations to member states.
1. Literature review
Problems of gender equality policy implementation, in particular in the
context of Ukraine’s integration into the EU and the need to bring national
standards into line with international norms, are a relevant subject for
research by Ukrainian and foreign researchers. The researchers study a
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large number of legislative documents related to this problem, because the
issues of gender equality have a long history and developed gradually and
unevenly depending on the cultural and political characteristics of dierent
countries.
Shcherbak (2020) mentioned the Association Agreement between
Ukraine and the European Union (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2015) as
the rst document in the context of ensuring gender equality, the main
provisions of which testify to the growing importance of issues related to
institutional support and ensuring the implementation of gender policy in
the state. The article is focused on the mechanisms of the gender policy
making in Ukraine, in particular, the functions of the policy-making bodies.
The paper notes that institutional mechanisms for improving the status
of women are one of the priority areas for further action, dened by the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which were adopted at the
Fourth World Conference on the Status of Women in 1995. Shcherbak’s
(2020) research, as well as the work of Manlosa et al. (2019), are evidence
that increasing the representation of women in the highest levels of state
power makes the state’s policy much more socially oriented, as well as
highly humane and tolerant.
Bila-Tiurina (2022) also notes the Beijing Conference as a starting point
for launching the process of creating institutional mechanisms in the eld
of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in Ukraine.
The researcher emphasizes that the institutional mechanism in Ukraine is
at the development stage and is currently weak.
Bila-Tiurina (2022) considers the establishment of the institutional
mechanism for the implementation of equal rights and opportunities for
women and men in the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men” (2018) as the main achievement.
According to the author, another important step of Ukraine in the context of
European integration is the ratication of the Istanbul Convention in 2022
(On the Ratication of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, 2022), which
was signed back in 2011.
Dmytrenko (2021) studies the aspects of building gender strategies
by foreign countries in order to determine the positive aspects of the
experience for Ukraine. The researcher denes the gender strategy as the
main document that outlines the key goals, objectives and principles of
the state’s gender policy. The author noted that the most popular gender
strategy in the world is mainstreaming, which consists in introducing
gender aspects into the activities of state management bodies at all levels.
Besides, the researcher emphasizes the importance of such a strategic
task within the implementation of gender policy as the introduction
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Alina Liasota, Yuliia Kobets, Kateryna Dobkina, Valentyna Yakubina y Vadim Penyuk
Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
of gender quotas. Gender quotas can be dened as a type of “positive
discrimination”, which involves the introduction of a system of benets,
compensations, prohibitions and incentives in order to increase the social
status of women.
Regarding the concept of “mainstreaming”, Saienko (2020) notes that
the creation of this concept was provided by the Beijing Action Platform,
which was discussed in the works of Shcherbak (2020) and Bila-Tiurina
(2022). At the current stage of development, the concept of mainstreaming
is often criticized, in particular for the fact that it further opposes women
and men, ignoring the dierences between other population groups and a
number of other problems.
However, some researchers, such as Vorchakova (2019), consider
adherence to the principles of mainstreaming as a positive aspect. She
emphasizes the observance of such principles in state programmes on
gender policy, noting, on the other hand, that the main problems lie in the
eld of women’s political representation.
In addition to the aspects outlined above, Dmytrenko (2021), as well
as Vorchakova (2019), note the possibility of using positive aspects of the
experience of Scandinavian countries —Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland
and Iceland — in Ukrainian practice. Vorchakova (2019) states that the
principles of gender equality have been an integral part of EU policy since
its creation, and EU countries are leaders in terms of the number of women
in national parliaments. In the researcher’s opinion, the main positive
aspect of the experience of these countries for Ukraine is the attention paid
not so much to constitutional guarantees, but to the equal employment
policy, which is achieved through centralized collective lobbying, as well as
through a balanced social policy.
Foreign researchers also widely cover the issue of gender equality, in
particular in the countries mentioned above, which have overcome the
gender gap as much as possible and can be a worthy example for Ukraine.
Urinboyevna and Rustamova (2021) note that Norway, Switzerland and
Finland rank rst according to the criteria of safety, equality and the ability
of women to fully participate in the life of society. Husu (2019) nds that,
gender studies and gender studies programmes in universities of Denmark,
Finland, Norway and Sweden have signicantly more inuence than in
most other European countries.
Schulstok and Wikstrand (2020) write on the specics of career
guidance in the context of gender equality in the Scandinavian countries.
The researchers summarize the main goals of gender policy in Denmark,
Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in the course of their study. Besides,
they explain how gender and gender equality aect career guidance in
science and politics and career practice.
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Foreign researchers also pay much attention to the issue of gender
mainstreaming. Minto et al. (2020) examined aspects of policy evaluation
and gender mainstreaming in the EU. Lomazzi and Crespi (2019,
2019a) study legislative and social changes in the EU in the context of
mainstreaming. Some studies focus on issues of gender mainstreaming and
gender policy related to the educational process (Lempesi, 2019; Rosa et
al., 2020).
2. Methods
2.1. Research design
The study was conducted in stages. The rst stage involved outlining
the mechanism of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and
men in Ukraine through the analysis of the legislative framework. This
mechanism is provided in Chapter II of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring
Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men”, and contains a
description of the bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to
ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men in Ukraine.
The second stage of the study provided for the description of bodies,
institutions and organizations empowered to ensure equal rights and
opportunities for women and men in Ukraine. Their main powers and
functions were determined by applying methods of analysis and synthesis.
The methods of deduction and induction were used at this stage in order
to identify key aspects related to monitoring the implementation of gender
equality policy, as well as related problems.
The third stage focuses on coverage of legislating gender equality in
Europe, in particular in the context of citing the main historical documents
and recommendations to member states. The comparative analysis was
used to assess the achievements of Ukraine in relation to the gender equality
policy and the introduction of a system of control over the implementation
of such policy, and to compare them with European experience and practice.
The methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, and
comparative analysis were used in the course of the research.
3. Results
3.1. The mechanism for ensuring equal rights and opportunities
for women and men in Ukraine
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Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
The introduction of an eective system of monitoring the implementation
of the gender equality policy should rst of all be ensured at the state
level by enshrining the relevant provisions in the legislative framework.
The adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men” (2018), the structure of which is shown
in Figure 1, was an important step in this regard.
Figure 1: Structure of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men” (2018).
A particularly important section of this Law is Chapter II “Mechanism
for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men”, which
establishes the bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to
ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men, as well as their
powers and functions. This mechanism should ensure the introduction of
appropriate measures for the development of gender equality policies, as
well as control over the implementation of such policies should be carried
out within its limits.
3.2. Bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to
ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men in
Ukraine
The functions of implementing and monitoring the implementation
of gender policy in Ukraine as part of the mechanism for ensuring equal
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rights and opportunities for women and men are entrusted to a number
of bodies, institutions and organizations empowered in this area. Table 1
lists the bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to ensure equal
rights and opportunities for women and men, as well as their powers and
functions.
Table 1. Bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to ensure equal
rights and opportunities for women and men, their powers and functions.
Name of the body, institution or
organization Performed functions
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU) 1) outlines the key principles of the
country’s gender policy; 2) uses the
principle of ensuring equal rights and
opportunities for women and men
in legislative activity; 3) exercises
parliamentary control over the
implementation of legislative acts on
ensuring gender equality
Voluntary Association of People’s
Deputies of Ukraine Inter-factional
Deputies Association (IDA) “Equal
Opportunities” established in 2014.
Its main goal is to improve the position
of women in society, as well as to
stimulate public dialogue on gender
equality issues in all spheres of life. The
priority areas of activity are combating
domestic violence, protecting the
rights of children and women,
creating conditions for ensuring equal
opportunities for women and men in
various elds.
The Public Council on Gender Issues
operating under the IDA Improves the coordination of
programmes supporting gender
equality, in particular by balancing
work to address gaps in certain areas
and duplication in others.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner
for Human Rights Monitors the observance of equality in
ensuring the rights and opportunities
of women and men; considers appeals
regarding gender-based discrimination
and gender-based violence etc.
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Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
Representative of the Commissioner
for Human Rights Ensures implementation by Ukrainian
Parliament Commissioner for Human
Rights of parliamentary control over
compliance with the principles of non-
discrimination and gender equality, as
well as individual rights of citizens
Expert Council on Non-Discrimination
and Gender Equality under
Representative of the Ukrainian
Parliament Commissioner for Human
Rights on Non-Discrimination and
Gender Equality
In the eld of ensuring non-
discrimination and gender equality:
monitors the state of ensuring the right
to freedom from discrimination and the
gender equality principle; participates
in the analysis of compliance of national
legislation and law enforcement
practice with Ukraine’s international
obligations; participates in the
preparation of proposals and opinions
regarding the regulatory legal acts etc.
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (CMU) In the eld of gender policy: takes
measures to ensure equal rights and
opportunities for women and men;
ensures the implementation of the state
gender policy; supervises the activities
of ministries and other executive
authorities.
The Government Oce for
Coordination on European and Euro-
Atlantic Integration established by the
CMU in 2017
In the eld of state policy for ensuring
gender equality: coordinates measures
for the implementation of state policy
for ensuring gender equality and
empowering women in the security and
defence sector in accordance with NATO
standards and recommendations.
Government Commissioner for Gender
Equality Policy (the position was
established by the Government in
2017)
Participates in the coordination
of actions for the implementation
at the state and local levels of
recommendations and comments of
international monitoring missions and
international organizations, informs
the public about ensuring equal rights
and opportunities for women and men,
etc.
Interdepartmental Council on Family,
Gender Equality, Demographic
Development, Prevention of Domestic
Violence and Combating Tracking in
Human Being
It includes both government
representatives and leading specialists,
scientists, representatives of
enterprises, institutions, individual
organizations (both national and
international, etc.
The Ministry of Social Policy In the eld of gender equality: develops
measures to ensure gender equality in
all spheres; forms the National Action
Plan; summarizes the implementation
of state programmes etc.
Ministry of Justice of Ukraine Ensures legal examination of legislation
for observance of gender-related
principles.
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Ministry of Internal Aairs of Ukraine Involved in the process of fullling
the main international obligations of
Ukraine regarding the establishment
of gender equality, and plays a leading
role in the implementation of gender
policy on combating sexual harassment,
prevention of domestic violence, child
abuse, combating human tracking.
Authorities of the Prosecutor’s Oce Receive and consider complaints about
facts of gender-based discrimination
Courts Consider lawsuits on gender-based
discrimination
Note: created according to (Issues of legal examination of legislation for observance of
gender-related principles, (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2019); On Ensuring Equal Rights
and Opportunities for Women and Men (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2018); On Approval
of the Regulation on the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,
2022); On Approval of the Regulation on the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada
of Ukraine, 2022); On the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,
2022); On the Consultative and Advisory Body on Family, Gender Equality, Demographic
Development, Prevention and Counteraction to Domestic Violence and Combating Human
Tracking (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2019); On the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner
for Human Rights (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2022); On the Government Commissioner
for Gender Equality Policy (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2017; Shcherbak, 2020).
In addition to the bodies, institutions and organizations mentioned in
Table 1, there are 2 parliamentary committees, as well as authorized persons
(coordinators) empowered to ensure equal rights and opportunities for
women and men; advisers on ensuring equal rights and opportunities for
women and men; consultative and advisory bodies; responsible structural
subdivisions which ensure the formation and implementation of gender
policy in the executive and local self-government bodies (“On Ensuring
Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men”, 2018).
Local state administrations and local self-government bodies also have
the right to form consultative and advisory bodies, to appoint advisers on
issues of ensuring gender equality, preventing and countering gender-
based violence (Shcherbak, 2020).
Table 1 gives grounds to conclude that the establishment of the principles
of gender equality has a strong support at the legislative level, and the main
aspects of ensuring gender equality should be controlled at all levels of
public administration.
However, the problem of gender discrimination continues to exist,
which is primarily related to stereotypes rooted in the minds of citizens
themselves. In particular, a large proportion of women themselves believe
that they “should” perform certain “female duties” due to various reasons:
education, ignorance, social insecurity, fear of condemnation from society,
etc.
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Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
Besides, there are certain “workarounds” that enable you to disregard
the rules of the law through certain agreements. It often happens that, for
example, when hiring, it is dicult to prove that the choice in favour of a
male candidate was made for gender reasons. Therefore, the mechanism
for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men should
include, among other things, measures to control the observance of gender
policy, such as regulation — establishing clear proportions that ensure
equality of women and men in the eld of employment, access to power, in
politics, etc.
It is also appropriate to enhance social work and raise citizens’ awareness
of the need to achieve gender equality. It is particularly important to further
improve the norms in the eld of determining responsibility for violations
of legislation in the eld of ensuring gender equality. It is well known that
the fear of punishment is an eective tool in combating crimes.
At the same time, the lack of punishment leads to the spread of crimes,
living proof of which is, among other things, the crimes of the Russian
occupiers during the war. A large proportion of these crimes are gender-
related, and their massiveness indicates impunity. The Government of
Ukraine is actively working on measures and mechanisms to prevent such
crimes and bring war criminals to justice.
3.3. Legislating Gender Equality in Europe: Historical
Documents and Recommendations to Member States
The European Union is, in fact, the “cradle” for the main provisions on
gender equality, actively developing aspects of gender policy over many
decades. Therefore, the experience of European countries in ensuring
gender equality, in particular, regarding the development of the legislative
framework, is one of the main examples for Ukraine.
During the period of development of legislation in the eld of gender
policy, numerous laws were adopted regarding its general and specic
aspects. Figure 2 shows key documents with a concise denition of the
main focus of the document.
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Figure 2: The main standards for ensuring gender equality enshrined in
European regulatory legal documents.
Note: created on the basis of (The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 1999); European Convention
on Human Rights (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2021); Protocol No. 12 to European
Convention on Human Rights (ETS N 177) (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2006); Treaty
establishing the European Community (Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, 2005); Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Liga 360, 2000; Zadoienko, 2019).
Figure 2 presents only few documents that had a particularly strong
impact on the further EU policy making in the eld of ensuring gender
equality. The full list of such documents is much broader. However, in the
context of Ukraine’s integration into the EU, it is also appropriate to mention
the list of the main Directives of the Council of the EU, the provisions of
which must be enshrined in the legislation of the member states:
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Experience from European Union countries
75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on equal pay;
76/207/EEC of 9 February 1976 on equal treatment in the workplace;
92/85/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the safety and health at work of
pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are
breastfeeding;
96/34 EC dated 3 June 1996 on the parental leave;
96/97/EC of December 20, 1996 on equal treatment for men and women
in occupational social security schemes;
2010/41/EU of 7 July 2010 on equal treatment between men and women
engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity (Roos, 2021; Argren et
al., 2023; Silander, 2019).
A number of recommendations and resolutions have been developed in
order to improve the eectiveness of changes in the gender policy of the EU
member states:
Recommendation Rec (2003)3 of the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe to member states on the balanced participation of women
and men in political and public decision-making (Council of Europe, 2003).
Recommendation 148(2004) of the Congress on the gender approach at
the local and regional levels (Council of Europe, 2004);
Recommendation CM/Rec (2007)17 of the Committee of Ministers of
the Council of Europe to member states on standards and mechanisms for
gender equality (Council of Europe, 2007);
Congress Resolution 391(2015) on ghting the growing poverty among
women (Council of Europe, 2015);
Congress Resolution 405(2016) on gender-responsive budgeting
(Council of Europe, 2016);
It should be noted separately that in 2018 the Committee of Ministers
of the Council of Europe adopted the Council of Europe Gender Equality
Strategy 2018-2023 (Council of Europe, 2018).
The document includes six strategic goals, in particular: preventing
and combating gender stereotypes and sexism; preventing and combating
violence against women and domestic violence; ensuring women’s equal
access to justice: balanced participation of women and men in making
social and political decisions; protection of the rights of migrant women
and girls, refugees and asylum seekers; implementation of the strategy for
achieving gender equality in all policies and measures (Council of Europe,
2018).
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Enshrining the main provisions of the above-mentioned documents
in the legislative framework of Ukraine will contribute not only to
increasing the eectiveness of gender policy and improving control over its
implementation, but also to bringing the national framework in line with
the European one, which is especially important in the context of Ukraine’s
integration into the EU.
4. Discussion
One of the main problems in achieving gender equality in Ukraine
is an imperfect system of control and monitoring of compliance with
the standards of ensuring gender equality in all spheres of social and
political life. Although the institutional mechanism for ensuring gender
equality presented in the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities of Women and Men” is a signicant positive step in this
matter, the legislative framework needs further improvement.
A number of researchers focus on the problems of ensuring the
implementation and control of the gender equality policy in Ukraine
and ways to solve them (Kopotun et al., 2022; Prokopenko et al., 2023).
According to Shcherbak (2020) and Manlosa et al. (2019), attention should
be paid to ensuring balanced access of women and men to state decision-
making, creating conditions for equal representation of the interests of all
social groups in state authorities, and cooperation between the state and
citizens on gender equality issues.
The experience of the Scandinavian countries is taken as an example in
the work of Urinboyevna and Rustamova (2021), where the achievements of
Norway, Switzerland and Finland in the eld of gender policy are associated
with a high level of security and life, life expectancy, and freedom of choice
in these countries. In the study of Husu (2019) the sample consists of
the same countries, and an important aspect of eective gender policy is
identied as the introduction of gender research programmes in education,
as well as the corresponding funding.
Schulstok and Wikstrand (2020) systematized the main goals of gender
policy in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. A comparison of
the goals of some of the listed countries found that, despite their common
success in implementing an eective gender policy, the Scandinavian states
use dierent approaches and focus on dierent goals of such a policy.
Denmark focuses on general aspects such as ensuring the freedom of
individuals, improved use of talents and resources and global activities. In
Finland, attention is focused on aspects of employment, as well as equality
in the elds of education and sports, elimination of violence against women,
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Implementation of an eective system for monitoring the application of gender equality policy:
Experience from European Union countries
etc. In Iceland, the primary goal of gender policy is to achieve equality in
political representation.
Other goals of this country mostly coincide with the goals of Finland,
in addition, both countries pay attention to the issues of gender equality
in relation to men. A wide range of gender policy objectives is available
in Norway: it covers aspects of child care and education, elimination of
violence, employment, business, health, etc. In Sweden, equal distribution
of power is at the top of the gender policy goals, and equality must be
achieved in the economic sphere, health care, education, unpaid leave and
childcare.
The goal of eliminating violence against women in this country is the
most specic and unambiguous: “Men’s violence against women must be
stopped”. The positive experience of these countries should be applied in
Ukrainian practice during the development of a gender equality strategy.
Minto et al. (2020) subject the gender mainstreaming policy in the EU
to some criticism due to the discrepancy between the existing assessment
standards for gender mainstreaming and the requirements for eective
assessment of progress in achieving gender equality. In contrast to this
view, Lomazzi and Crespi (2019) note that despite the shortcomings of the
gender mainstreaming approach, it is the most important transnational
strategy. Researchers dene gender mainstreaming as a signicant
legislative and cultural shift that contributes to the achievement of gender
equality in European policy.
Lempesi (2019) expresses a very interesting view on gender equality
in education in Greece. The author notes that the country was “forced”
to follow the Community guidelines, having no previous traditions in
gender policy, so aspects of gender policy remained fragmented in it. If we
consider the introduction of gender policy from this point of view, it can be
noted that in a certain period, most countries also did not have previous
traditions of gender policy. However, most European countries have chosen
a progressive approach that takes into account the need to introduce and
develop gender policy.
In this context, it is worth noting the role of control and monitoring of
EU member states’ compliance with the political aspects of gender equality,
which contributes to gradual transformation even in countries without
previous traditions of gender policy. Rosa et al. (2020) also focus on the
problems of gender equality in education, and, unlike the previous study,
emphasize the positive aspects of ensuring gender equality.
The researchers note that creating a gender-sensitive university requires
behavioural and attitudinal changes that can be driven by both innovative
thinking and a legislative framework and commitment to change through
data collection, monitoring, training, leadership, networking and synergies
of the most unexpected kinds.
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The conducted discussion can indicate that positive changes in the
implementation of gender policy should be ensured in the context of two
main directions: legislative (change and adoption of relevant normative
documents) and socio-cultural (change in attitude, behaviour, stereotypes).
However, the maximum eciency of work in both directions cannot be
achieved without the introduction of a system of eective control and
monitoring both at the state level and by citizens and their organizations.
Conclusions
The article presents the key achievements of Ukraine in the development
of legislation on gender equality policy issues, in particular, the structure
of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for
Women and Men” is described. Special attention is paid to Chapter II
of the Law, which provides a mechanism for ensuring equal rights and
opportunities for women and men.
The bodies, institutions and organizations empowered to ensure equal
rights and opportunities for women and men in Ukraine and their key
functions were described within such a mechanism. It was determined
that this mechanism is intended to increase the eectiveness of the gender
equality policy, and also provides for monitoring the implementation of
such policy.
The list and main content of the key standards for ensuring gender
equality dened in the regulatory and legal documents of the EU are
provided. A comparison of the national and foreign legislative framework
identied the main problems related to the achievement of gender equality
in Ukraine and to form key directions for improving gender policy.
One of the main problems regarding the achievement of gender
equality in Ukraine is an imperfect system of control and monitoring of
compliance with the standards of ensuring gender equality in all spheres of
social and political life. The institutional mechanism for ensuring gender
equality, provided in the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and
Opportunities for Women and Men”, is a signicant positive shift in the
investigated issue, however, it was noted that the legislative framework
needs further improvement, expansion and adaptation to international
standards.
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Experience from European Union countries
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