Purpose. This article attempts to examine the current state of addressing gender inequality in Ukraine. Methodology. The author has used methodology of historical inquiry, hermeneutical methodology and content analysis. Theoretical basis and results. Issues about gender imbalance are acute in Ukraine. Gender inequality in politics is a matter of serious concern. Insignificant part of women in political and decision-making processes is a serious challenge to democracy. Discrimination in the labor market should be noted. Obvious gender inequality in the labor market (...) has led to feminization of poverty. Violence against women has become an acute problem, which can be resolved at the state level only. Although international and national legislation is based on the principle of equality, in practice women are not equal in social life and activities. There is a deep contradiction between the new needs in society and the lack of conditions for their satisfaction. This situation appears to be a challenge to modern Ukrainian society and state of Ukraine, thus, immediate appropriate actions are required. Scientific novelty. It is essential to bring Ukrainian legislation into conformity with the constitutional principles of equality and European standards; develop appropriate and effective anti-discrimination norms and sanctions for violating gender legislation; introduce special measures to ensure gender parity in decision-making, in all public offices; conduct special information campaigns; develop and institutionalize gender studies and gender education at all stages; get more public control over the implementation of international commitments and principles of equal rights and opportunities for women and men. Conclusion. Appropriate mechanisms for overcoming gender stereotypes will contribute to integration of equal rights’ principle and opportunities. Human resources policies require systematic approach to gender analysis and integration in order to address gender issues in program development. In the 21st century issues of gender equity should be a priority at all levels. (shrink)

Purpose. This article attempts to examine the current state of addressing gender inequality in Ukraine. Methodology. The author has used methodology of historical inquiry, hermeneutical methodology and content analysis. Theoretical basis and results. Issues about gender imbalance are acute in Ukraine. Gender inequality in politics is a matter of serious concern. Insignificant part of women in political and decision-making processes is a serious challenge to democracy. Discrimination in the labor market should be noted. Obvious gender inequality in the labor market (...) has led to feminization of poverty. Violence against women has become an acute problem, which can be resolved at the state level only. Although international and national legislation is based on the principle of equality, in practice women are not equal in social life and activities. There is a deep contradiction between the new needs in society and the lack of conditions for their satisfaction. This situation appears to be a challenge to modern Ukrainian society and state of Ukraine, thus, immediate appropriate actions are required. Scientific novelty. It is essential to bring Ukrainian legislation into conformity with the constitutional principles of equality and European standards; develop appropriate and effective anti-discrimination norms and sanctions for violating gender legislation; introduce special measures to ensure gender parity in decision-making, in all public offices; conduct special information campaigns; develop and institutionalize gender studies and gender education at all stages; get more public control over the implementation of international commitments and principles of equal rights and opportunities for women and men. Conclusion. Appropriate mechanisms for overcoming gender stereotypes will contribute to integration of equal rights’ principle and opportunities. Human resources policies require systematic approach to gender analysis and integration in order to address gender issues in program development. In the 21st century issues of gender equity should be a priority at all levels. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze the basic principles of gender philosophy applying methodological tools of communicative pragmatics; to demonstrate how gender construct can provide gender humanism formation as one of the ideals of democratic society; to specify gender glossary terms such as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice”. Methodology. In order to investigate a theoretical framework in feminist philosophy, methodological tools of communicative pragmatics and discursive ethics that were elaborated by modern German philosophers J. Habermas, K.-O. Apel for analyzing (...) ethical gender principles and their legitimation ways have been used in this research. Scientific novelty. Based on methodological differences in concepts of J. Habermas and K.-O. Apel, two opposite approaches to gender concept analysis – rational and pragmatic and transcendental conceptual have been found out. The article helps to specify the framework of categories and concepts. According to the legitimation way of gender ethical theory it was discovered that such notions as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice” do not have the same meanings. According to the analysis of communicative action program and consensus, the “gender equality” concept by Habermas is an artificial social construct that is methodologically grounded in cognitivism and diminishes the possibilities of gender values legitimation. According to K.-O. Apel, the concept of “gender justice” is based on transcendental moral and ethical sense of opposite genders unity and does not discharge unequal distribution of responsibilities and any invasion as well as represents certain extent of their difference. Conclusions. Fast growing gender changes in the society face ageold drawbacks of moral and spiritual principles of communities, taking into account social and cultural, national and gender identity. Thorough understanding of various approaches to feminism philosophy leads more to complementarity of male and female principles of humanity with further acceptance of gender roles that reflect more complicated panorama of spiritual life. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze the basic principles of gender philosophy applying methodological tools of communicative pragmatics; to demonstrate how gender construct can provide gender humanism formation as one of the ideals of democratic society; to specify gender glossary terms such as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice”. Methodology. In order to investigate a theoretical framework in feminist philosophy, methodological tools of communicative pragmatics and discursive ethics that were elaborated by modern German philosophers J. Habermas, K.-O. Apel for analyzing (...) ethical gender principles and their legitimation ways have been used in this research. Scientific novelty. Based on methodological differences in concepts of J. Habermas and K.-O. Apel, two opposite approaches to gender concept analysis – rational and pragmatic and transcendental conceptual have been found out. The article helps to specify the framework of categories and concepts. According to the legitimation way of gender ethical theory it was discovered that such notions as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice” do not have the same meanings. According to the analysis of communicative action program and consensus, the “gender equality” concept by Habermas is an artificial social construct that is methodologically grounded in cognitivism and diminishes the possibilities of gender values legitimation. According to K.-O. Apel, the concept of “gender justice” is based on transcendental moral and ethical sense of opposite genders unity and does not discharge unequal distribution of responsibilities and any invasion as well as represents certain extent of their difference. Conclusions. Fast growing gender changes in the society face ageold drawbacks of moral and spiritual principles of communities, taking into account social and cultural, national and gender identity. Thorough understanding of various approaches to feminism philosophy leads more to complementarity of male and female principles of humanity with further acceptance of gender roles that reflect more complicated panorama of spiritual life. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze the basic principles of gender philosophy applying methodological tools of communicative pragmatics; to demonstrate how gender construct can provide gender humanism formation as one of the ideals of democratic society; to specify gender glossary terms such as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice”. Methodology. In order to investigate a theoretical framework in feminist philosophy, methodological tools of communicative pragmatics and discursive ethics that were elaborated by modern German philosophers J. Habermas, K.-O. Apel for analyzing (...) ethical gender principles and their legitimation ways have been used in this research. Scientific novelty. Based on methodological differences in concepts of J. Habermas and K.-O. Apel, two opposite approaches to gender concept analysis – rational and pragmatic (Habermas) and transcendental conceptual (K.-O. Apel) have been found out. The article helps to specify the framework of categories and concepts. According to the legitimation way of gender ethical theory it was discovered that such notions as “gender democracy”, “gender equality” and “gender justice” do not have the same meanings. According to the analysis of communicative action program and consensus, the “gender equality” concept by Habermas is an artificial social construct that is methodologically grounded in cognitivism and diminishes the possibilities of gender values legitimation. According to K.-O. Apel, the concept of “gender justice” is based on transcendental moral and ethical sense of opposite genders unity and does not discharge unequal distribution of responsibilities and any invasion as well as represents certain extent of their difference. Conclusions. Fast growing gender changes in the society face ageold drawbacks of moral and spiritual principles of communities, taking into account social and cultural, national and gender identity. Thorough understanding of various approaches to feminism philosophy leads more to complementarity of male and female principles of humanity with further acceptance of gender roles that reflect more complicated panorama of spiritual life. (shrink)

In this article we aim to show the potential of cross-continental dialogues for a decolonizing feminism. We relate the work of one of the major critics of the Western metaphysical patriarchal order, Luce Irigaray, to the critique of the colonial/modern gender system by the Nigerian feminist scholar Oyĕrónké Oyĕwùmí. Oyĕwùmí's work is often rejected based on the argument that it is empirically wrong. We start by problematizing this line of thinking by providing an epistemological interpretation of Oyĕwùmí's claims. We then (...) draw Irigaray and Oyĕwùmí into conversation, and show how this bolsters and helps to further illuminate and contextualize Oyĕwùmí's critique of gender. But the dialogue between these thinkers also reveals significant limitations of Irigaray's philosophy, namely her presumption of the priority of sexual difference, its rigid duality, and her failure to take into account the inextricable intertwinement of gender and race in the Western patriarchal order. Relating Irigaray's critique of Western culture's forgetting of sexual difference to Oyĕwùmí's critique hence demonstrates to what extent Irigaray's philosophy remains typically Western and how she therefore fails to escape the paradigm that she is so critical of. (shrink)

Sexes and Genealogies also includes Irigaray's dazzling reading of the Oresteia, "Body Against Body: In Relation to the Mother," now acknowleged as a feminist classic.

A radically subversive critique brings to the fore the masculine ideology implicit in psychoanalytic theory and in Western discourse in general: woman is defined as a disadvantaged man, a male construct with no status of her own.

In eleven acute and widely ranging essays, Irigaray reconsiders the question of female sexuality in a variety of contexts that are relevant to current discussion of feminist theory and practice.