Women’s Emancipation in Ukraine at the Turns of Xix-Xx Centuries

At the turns of the XIX - XX centuries in Western Europe, dramatic changes in society are observed. In France and England, the movement for establishing women's rights took effect. In the first half of the nineteenth century, in French appeared the concept of feminism. The participants of this social movement were both women and men. The main direction of their struggle was giving women equal with men voting and economic rights as well as rights to obtaining education and sexual freedoms. In Ukraine, the inequality of men and women existed since time immemorial, so due to the influence of Western Europe the same movements began to occur. In the 80 - 90-ies of the XIX century in Western Ukraine women’s groups started to emerge as an integral part of the national emancipation movement against the Austrian authorities. Historically, woman's participation in society and public life was limited by the framework of the family, household and home, so any other activity was inaccessible. However, some people did not want to bow under pressure any longer. As the result, under the influence of Western Europe Natalia Kobrynska, a well-known, at that time, writer and social activist, initiated an emancipation movement. She organized publishing of Galician women's magazines, such as “Gromadianka”, “Women” and “Women’s voice”. Other participants try to show their protest against the Ukrainian stereotypes and traditions, which show women only like a mother and a housewife, in their writings. For instance, outstanding representatives of the struggle for the rights of women have always been the main characters of the literature works by Kobylianska Olga, Lesya Ukrainka and others. All in all, western feminist groups were focused on educational and charity work among women on the local level, their leaders were inspired by the goals of preserving the Ukrainian language and traditions, and developing the national culture.
The strategy of “enlightenment” of the wide masses of people (or women) was common for cultural nationalism and for the women’s groups of this period in other parts of Ukraine too. In Eastern and Southern Ukraine the women’s movement, which emerged at approximately the same time as in Western Ukraine, was not generally nationalist-oriented, though in some cases it supported the idea of Ukrainian cultural autonomy. Women’s groups in these regions were more likely to form part of the Russian women’s movement with its different traditions and history. They were, for example, more active on the political level and had connections with social-democratic politics and socialist ideology. So women’s groups in Southern and Eastern Ukraine represented more radical purposes and actions in emancipation movement.
Ukrainian feminists understood feminism as a fight for human rights for one half of the population. Their opposition to the dominant state and nationalist ideology, their struggle for the right for deconstruction of national stereotypes and traditions were very important, and it helped to modernize the Ukrainian national idea very effectively.