“War’s Gendered Costs: The Story of Ukraine’s Women”, a report written by the Observer Research Foundation, seeks to fill the gaps in literature on the massive consequences of the conflict on Ukraine’s women.
Amidst the devastation caused by the military invasion of Ukraine by Russia, it is the women and girls who are bearing the worst impacts. This gendered view of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has yet to be given the attention it deserves.
“War’s Gendered Costs: The Story of Ukraine’s Women”, a report written by Akanksha Khullar for the Observer Research Foundation, looks at how the first eight months of the Russian offensive has impacted the lives of Ukraine’s women and girls.
The gendered impacts of the war
From when the conflict first erupted, Ukrainian women have fought in the military and territorial defence forces, and have served on the diplomatic and informational front lines. They have also saved lives as doctors, nurses, hospital workers, and volunteers. Those living overseas have organised mass protests calling for an end to the war.
Disregarding both their significant contributions and their additional burdens, decision-makers have largely kept women on the sidelines, whether on humanitarian efforts, peace-making, or other areas that directly impact their lives. At the formal decision-making level, the centralisation of power and increased role of the military has only made it more difficult for women to exert influence in political and administrative decision-making processes. Women’s lack of participation has further failed to ensure that their needs and priorities, including of those most vulnerable and marginalised, are being given adequate attention and thereby mitigated.
Additional caregiving burden
The Russia-Ukraine war is causing a re-distribution of family roles and functions, thereby adding to the onerous plight of women. Women in Ukraine have customarily been viewed as the primary caregivers and domestic workers tasked with the responsibility of nurturing their families, especially the children and the elderly. They have limited control over assets and productive resources, and are required to do most of the work on fulfilling the humanitarian needs of displaced people, locals and households. Indeed, 95 percent of single-parent households are headed by single mothers.
As Russia’s assault on Ukraine led to the destruction or closing down of hundreds of schools, childcare and eldercare centres, and hospitals, women’s care burden has increased manifold. This has left them little time, if at all, to care for themselves. Compounding the care burden are other consequences of war such as strained community resources, high demand for volunteer work, and the absence of men.
Migration and displacement
Amidst Russian shelling and bombing, Ukraine is being confronted with an unprecedented crisis of great numbers of women and children fleeing their homes to search for a better life or simply to stay alive. According to the UN, as of July 2022, at least 12 million people have fled their homes since Russia’s offensive began. Of this number, more than 5.2 million have left for neighbouring countries and are being recorded as refugees across Europe; more than 3.5 million of them have applied for temporary residence in a foreign country. Within Ukraine, some seven million people are internally displaced.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than half of those either fleeing the country or are displaced are women. The IOM data suggests that as of July 2022, at least 65 percent of women are still trying to find safety in different parts of Ukraine. These numbers are only expected to increase significantly in the coming months as the offensive continues.
Yet, it is not the displacement alone that increases the security risk for Ukrainian women and young girls. As thousands of refugees seek shelter and safety, the danger of women being trafficked heightens as they look for help for themselves and their children. Exploiting their situation and vulnerability, traffickers offer transport, work or accommodation, thereby luring women to leave with them.
These situations could lead to sexual exploitation where women are forced to trade sex for shelter, transport or safety. In addition, women who have been forced to flee often rely on hastily opened and unvetted sources of shelter—many of which are overcrowded and under-resourced. In many of these shelters there is poor hygiene, lack of basic supplies, and absence of safety measures, together posing a direct threat to the health and lives of women.
Impeded access to health services
Damage and destruction of medical facilities, along with a shortage of service providers and critical supplies, have severely compromised the delivery of health services such as maternal care for the estimated 265,000 women who were pregnant when the conflict erupted, and specialised services for gender-based violence survivors.
In the past six months of the war, pregnant women in Ukraine—shielding from Russian bombardment and to protect their babies—have been reported giving birth in subway stations, underground shelters, basements and bunkers.
Life has not been easier for those who have fled Ukraine. Upon their arrival in a foreign country, migrants—majority of whom are women—are facing immense difficulty to access healthcare services primarily due to lack of registration documents or because those health systems are already overloaded, to begin with, and thereby further stressed by the multitude of refugees arriving in a very short period of time.
Sexual violence and rape
Since the Russian invasion, there have been reports of women being raped following the execution of their husbands; and of women being raped in front of their family members—a deliberate tactic to tear apart the fabric of the Ukrainian family, break the spirit of the women, and instil a sense of hopelessness and despair.
For rape victims either in Ukraine or among those finding shelter in a foreign land, their health risks are significant. They are at high risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, as well as pregnancy and internal physical injuries—these would all require specialised medical assistance that may not be available amidst the ongoing conflict.
Education
According to Ukraine’s Education Ministry, over 1,800 schools and universities have been damaged or destroyed since the Russian invasion. Other schools are being used as information centres, shelters, supply hubs, or for military purposes by both warring parties. As a result, millions of boys and girls in the past eight months have been deprived of proper education, with young girls being at a particular risk of losing years of schooling and social development. Save the Children notes that in areas of conflict like Ukraine, girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys.
Food and energy crisis
The ongoing war has added another challenge to the crisis as it has massively disrupted production and export processes and essential commodities are becoming increasingly scarce. These shortages drive price hikes in turn. The cost of food in Ukraine has risen by 50 percent since the beginning of 2022, whereas crude oil prices—currently up by 33 percent—are projected to rise above 50 percent by the end of the year.
When there is not enough food to go around, women in patriarchal societies are required to cut down their own intake to save food for other members of the household. This trend has become glaringly visible in Ukraine, driving worsening malnutrition and anaemia among women and young girls.
Recommendations
The report makes the following recommendations to prevent the further regression of women’s rights in Ukraine.
- Ukrainian women need to be included in decision-making platforms on de-escalation, conflict prevention, mitigation and other processes.
- National and international efforts must be made towards scaling up the delivery of life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, medical equipment and supplies, and strengthening the network as well as resources of civil society organisations that could provide assistance to women whose lives have been upended by the conflict.
- Accountability can both act as a deterrent for the crimes that are being carried out against the Ukrainian women and help bring about a decrease in sexual violence during peacetime. Thus, there is an urgent need to ensure accountability—whether in international or domestic jurisdictions—for sexual and gender-based crimes in Ukraine.
- The gendered element of all war crimes must be emphasised and highlighted during international trials, and must be taken into account as courts hand out their decisions and sentencing.
- Funds need to be raised and investments made in educational programmes directly targeted at Ukrainian women and girls.
- Promote and protect the right to food by targeting the specific nutrition needs of women and girls.
- The international community along with the national forces must actively listen to women activists, IDPs, doctors, nurses, and those fighting on the frontlines, and work to mainstream their needs and concerns across all levels.
Source: Observer Research Foundation Online