The Ukrainian society has failed to achieve gender equality, because the laws that should ensure equal rights for men and women are not implemented in real life. On March, 9 this was stated by the MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych in the program “Right to Rule” on the air of “1+1” TV channel.
“The laws on male and female gender equality are, unfortunately, declarative. Most of them do not work in practice,” stressed Iryna Konstankevych, noting that treatment of women in the Ukrainian society has not undergone significant changes during the last century. According to the MP, the draft laws on gender equality are not supported in the Verkhovna Rada, as well as most social initiatives. This is confirmed by statistics, according to which the current parliament has only approved a few important laws on education and medicine. Instead of this, the MPs support documents that satisfy financial interests of certain persons due to strong political or economic lobbies. At the same time Iryna Konstankevych says that she doesn’t feel she is being harassed by men in the Verkhovna Rada.
“As for myself I has never felt it, perhaps because I represent the political force, where there are many worthy men who can defend their women,” said the MP. The parliamentarian has stressed that UKROP is one of the political parties that has respected gender quota set by electoral law, not only in the candidate lists, but also with the actual number of women elected to local councils. For example, only in Volyn Regional Council 30% of seats in the UKROP faction belong to women, who are engaged in economic and social problems of the region.
