The Main Ways of Gender Policy Improvement in the System of Public Administration of Ukraine

Abstract

The article highlights the current state of gender parity in the government system in Ukraine. The Ukrainian legislation is gender-balanced and provides all the main types of equality and social protection, which are enshrined at both the constitutional and the legislative levels. However, the problem is in the contradiction between legislative fixing of gender equality principles and real social processes. In Ukraine there is a voluntary 30 percent gender quota, which is enshrined in the Law “On political parties in Ukraine”, according to which parties that have at least a third part of representatives of the same gender as a result of elections, receive an additional 10% of annual volume of state funding of statutory activities. Since 2015, the gender quota has also been extended to local elections. It means that at least a third part of the electoral roll must be women. According to the monitoring of the official site of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the gender composition of the Verkhovna Rada of the 9th convocation has changed and compared to the previous one, the representation of women has increased by 8.8% in the parliament and two parties have received an additional funding from the state budget for more balanced representation of women and men in the Verkhovna Rada – “European Solidarity” and “Voice”. However, the problem of women and men's empowerment remains. Positive and negative aspects of the process of gender policy-making are shown. The legislative support for gender equality is analyzed. It is proved that the declarative nature of gender legislation is a serious cause of imbalance in establishing the parity of representation of men and women in the system of public administration of Ukraine, as well as the absence of a legal mechanism for ensuring the principle of equality between women and men. The ways of gender policy improvement in the system of public administration are outlined, in particular: legislative changes should be accompanied by gender-sensitive education in order to shape the gender culture of citizens and civil servants; gender issues must be taken into account in sustainable development strategies and programs. Keywords: gender, gender policy, public administration, discrimination, gender equality, gender roles, gender identity, gender legal expertise, gender analysis, gender quota.