The problem of gender education and awareness in Ukraine is very sharp. Some universities of Ukraine are trying to introduce gender education, but these efforts are not systematic, and not little time is reserved in the curriculum. Gender issues are not considered in planning and organization of work in many spheres of life of modern Ukrainian society. All this leads to such situation, that young Ukrainians, who are to reform social, economic and political processes in the country, still base their life and views on stereotypes about the role of women, about rights and responsibilities of men, elderly people, people with disabilities etc. These stereotypes do not allow Ukrainian society to start a new stage of its development, as programs of regional and national development, business-plans of big and medium companies, as well as programs of major political forces in the country are still developed without consideration of gender issues.

As example, now and in soviet time payment to women is making 60-80% from payment of man in the same sphere of economy. While elaborating programs for economic development of enterprises and territories, the focus is on the enterprises which will provide employment for men. During elections to councils of different level the number of women in the party lists is not more than 15-20%. At legislative level, the Law on gender has been adopted, and mechanism for its implementation is missing.

There are NGOs effectively working in this sphere, but they can only solve the problem locally and for specific target audience. To achieve major change, it is needed to develop national approach, and apply it to most active part of Ukrainian society, young people, in the framework of education system.

SVIT-Ukraine jointly with partner NGO from Donetsk called “Youth Employment Center” developed a project aimed to address the problem of gender education at schools, colleges and universities, raise awareness of students on importance of gender issues, and develop methodology for informal educational classes on gender issues. The project will be realized in cooperation with Polish Robert Schuman Foundation and involvement of EVS volunteer from Poland.

During the project, volunteer together with local activists will prepare and conduct informal gender classes and educational sessions, work on data-base library on gender education, visit schools and colleges to discuss gender education with staff and school-children.

The project is planned to start in January 2008.