The Chairperson of the Committee on Ukraine's Integration into the EU took part in the discussion “The Role of Women in Defence and Security”, organised by the European Women's Union.
Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze stressed that women in Ukraine, on an equal footing with men, have stood up to defend their country. “Over the past 10 years, we have made a lot of efforts and achieved significant progress in enabling women to hold high positions, including in the military, and to receive high military ranks. Today, Ukraine has a high percentage of women in the Armed Forces, on a par with NATO member states, where many women serve in the military. We currently have about 40,000 women in the Armed Forces in military positions, and more than 20,000 in civilian positions. About 16,000 women have the status of combatants,” said the Committee Chair. According to her, this is a great progress compared to the situation before 2014. At the same time, there are still very few women in the Ukrainian army who hold high ranks, such as colonels, let alone generals. There are currently only two female generals in Ukraine, according to the Committee's chairman.
The situation in politics is somewhat better. Since 2014, when the number of women in parliament was less than 10%, the number of women in the current convocation of the Verkhovna Rada has increased to 21%. “Of course, this is not a perfect representation of women in power, but there are still more of us in politics, and this is good,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze.
She also stressed that the representation of women in civil society is very high. And this is a serious asset that should not be underestimated. “We need to focus on how to increase the number of women who have proven their professionalism, capacity and ability to replace men in the positions that have been vacant since the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Many women have organised themselves, established horizontal connections to help the army, and many have led businesses and communities to help their country. We united in cross-party groups, representatives of different political forces in the parliament, to inform politicians and societies together about what is happening in Ukraine and what help we need,” said the Committee's chairwoman. And this, she said, was a powerful diplomatic force, because women politicians are also mothers, and their messages resonated with every audience.
“Ukrainian women today are fighting side by side with men for their country. Therefore, without the involvement of every person capable of working effectively in the military, defence, economic or any other field, we will not be able to achieve our highest goal– to preserve a nation and a state that is free to make its own choices and live its own independent life. We hope for your help in this – women politicians, entrepreneurs, diplomats from all over the world who understand the value of human life. And they understand what a privilege it is to work to improve living standards rather than fight for their survival,” the Committee Chair concluded.