Women leaders fearlessly serving people in need in Ukraine
Women are often portrayed as passive observers and victims of conflicts around the world. But speaking to Yulia Malihonova, Head of the Gender Unit in the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) confirms that this view is one-sided. In fact, today in Ukraine women are taking action to keep their country resolute and resilient, side by side with men, in every field.
This is especially true in the SESU, which is the government agency responsible for protecting people during emergencies, remedying the impact of emergencies, and extinguishing fires. As such, SESU has been at the centre of Ukraine’s response to the war.
When we interviewed Yulia Malihonova, the OSCE Secretariat’s Gender Issues Programme was conducting a series of capacity-building activities for the SESU. The Gender Unit she leads is transforming the way women are perceived in Ukraine’s security sector. Yulia explains how the tragic events of Russia’s war against the country shifted the way Ukrainian women think about themselves.
Point of no return
‘’A lot has changed in the emergency service's approach. Previously, no one understood how it was related to gender equality and why gender equality was essential. Now Ukrainians, including our colleagues, are paying more attention to it; they try to read the regulations and understand how the SESU works and how we ensure equal rights and opportunities in our work,’’ says Yulia.
It is generally assumed that the security sector is dominated by men. But women are now well-represented in the SESU system. Over the last five years, the number of women employees has increased by an average of one and a half per cent per year and these numbers continued to increase after 24 February 2022.
“Women work on an equal basis with men. They simply realized they could do it. And they stopped being afraid to prove themselves at work. In the past, women often thought that men can do it better. But not anymore,” Yulia says.
How the SESU works has also changed. There is an overall understanding that women are capable leaders and can respond to critical situations like shelling and explosions. Yulia clarifies: “Not only do they lead on par with men, sometimes they do it even better.”
True heroes
Yulia sees women’s leadership in action every day. ”There are so many examples of extraordinary women leaders. There was a woman in Lviv who was operating evacuation trains. She started her service in early 2022 and she never imagined she would be able to work 24/7 for two months. She operated evacuation trains, helped and organised people into psychological support units, without a day off. But she managed.“
Yulia also speaks about a woman who leads one of SESU’s diving units. She took a pyrotechnic course and became a diver-pyrotechnician. She performs tasks that only a few people in the world can do. She also inspired many other women who are now following her example and studying pyrotechnics.
Not leaving anyone behind
Much has also been done to promote a disability-inclusive approach in the work of SESU. The Gender Unit and Gender Focal Points internally raise the awareness of the employees and conduct extensive training courses on supporting people with disabilities. They also started cooperating with various international organizations and NGOs. For instance, during the training sessions, SESU employees are being taught how to properly use a wheelchair, provide assistance, and move people out of the house during gunfire in a way that does not cause harm.
Moreover, the rescuers are being taught the gestures of sign language. This knowledge is essential when evacuating people that have a hearing impairment in the event of a building being shelled or a fire. The ability to communicate can truly save lives.
SESU also created videos about personal security in various situations that are accessible to people with sensory impairments.
Priceless support from partners
Some of these changes were introduced before February 2022, and the efforts to promote gender equality and inclusiveness go back to 2020–2021 when the State Emergency Service of Ukraine underwent a gender audit.
In 2023, the Secretariat’s Gender Issues Programme through its WIN project, initiated new activities to build SESU employees’ capacity on gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive humanitarian response, and women’s leadership. “The opportunity to gather a large group of the SESU specialists in person is extremely precious especially these days when we are still going through the war,” stresses Yulia.
“We are very grateful for the opportunity to bring SESU Gender Focal Points and a cohort of prominent women leaders from across Ukraine together in person to work on issues that some of them simply have not had the opportunity to work on even online because of their duty stations distant location or their massive workload,” Yulia says.
Every kind of help from the partners is highly appreciated, as we can see that this is changing the reality of women leaders in Ukraine every day. ”We have summarized one of the training sessions of the OSCE WIN project: Now women leaders in SESU are better equipped to lead smarter, not harder, and that is our goal,” Yulia concludes.
This story is part of a series created by the OSCE’s WIN for Women and Men. The project is aimed at strengthening comprehensive security through innovative networking for gender equality by showcasing examples of women's leadership skills in responding to the humanitarian crisis caused by of the war against Ukraine. Women leaders are the inspiration and reason behind the WIN project, fostering women’s participation and leadership as well as broadening men’s engagement in achieving gender equality.