Ukrainian Society at Initial Stage of Ukrainian Revolution (March – November 1917): to the Issue of Political Emancipation of Women in Ukraine
Abstract
The paper is devoted to the problem of activating the political consciousness of women in Ukraine. The study and promotion of this issue can have a positive impact on the development of the Ukrainian women’s movement and the achievement of de facto gender parity in the field of public authority in Ukraine.
1917 should be considered as one of the important periods in the women’s history of Ukraine since at that time a new vector of its development came into force: active politicization of women’s consciousness with their civic activity stimulating by appointing women to executive positions in national bodies of state power in the first and second stages of the Central Rada of Ukraine period.
Unlike Russian society, Ukrainian society did not expect an official change in the gender policy of the Provisional Government, but immediately showed its readiness for national democratic transformations to achieve gender parity, in particular, started to involve socially active women in building up of Ukrainian statehood since the beginning of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921.
Socially active women were the representatives of the Ukrainian national liberation movement. The revival of Ukrainian statehood, democracy, and gender parity in the society were considered being its most important ideological principles.
In 1917-1921, Ukrainian society reached a qualitatively new level in the politicization of women's consciousness. It was evidenced by the creation and effective activity of a unifying, for all women’s organizations of Ukraine, center – the Union of Ukrainian Women, socially useful work in the bodies of state power, deputizing in the Central Rada of Ukraine, and membership in the Little Rada.
The actual transformation of a woman from an object into a subject of political activity was accompanied not only by positive reactions of Ukrainian society to the process but also by critical interpretation of their activities by members of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the Central Rada of Ukraine.
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