They are well-known for their beauty and a good housewife’s talent. However, this stereotype conceals changes in the social status of Ukrainian women...
They are well-known for their beauty and a good housewife’s talent. However, this stereotype conceals changes in the social status of Ukrainian women. At the Soviet times it was the man who presented the model driving force in society, while the role of the woman was reduced to running the family life.
A “duty” stemming to a large extent from the ancient image of the “Berehynya”, the Slavic godness, whose maternal and protective power especially symbolised Ukraine in the 18th –19th centuries. Ukrainian post-Soviet society has preserved the image of the woman as a mother, a wife, a guardian of tradition and spirituality. These values and traditional responsibilities are supposed to weigh much in the context of national reconstruction.
But, a sudden transition of a post-Soviet Ukraine to a market economy has brought on new forms of women’s identity. Determined to shake the social inequalities and the dominant position of the man, more and more women get involved in the social, economic and political life of the country. A budding phenomenon, yet, revealing a new vision turned to the West.
Frequently in rather difficult conditions of life the competitive and ambitious spirit of Ukrainian women finds its way in all the areas of public life. While a number of Ukrainian women have left the country for work abroad, the place of the woman in Ukraine is slowly changing in a traditional society affected by modernity.
Portraits of women of all generations mixed.
© Cyril Horiszny
The web site presents a section of the photos serie " Women of Ukraine - On the crossroads between tradition and modernity."
