STATE POLICY ON THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND DIRECTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT)

Abstract

Introduction. The protection of women’s rights in Ukraine is an important component of contemporary public policy and is gaining particular significance under conditions of full-scale war, social vulnerability of the population, economic instability, and institutional fragmentation. Despite the existence of a well-developed legal and regulatory framework in the areas of gender equality, non-discrimination, prevention of and response to domestic and gender-based violence, in practice there remains a gap between formal legal regulation and the actual capacity of public institutions to ensure effective protection of women’s rights. This creates a need for a scholarly understanding of the existing public policy mechanisms, the identification of their limitations, and the determination of priority directions for improvement.

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to substantiate directions for improving public policy on the protection of women’s rights in Ukraine through a combination of legal and regulatory analysis, the examination of official statistical and analytical sources, and the results of the author’s expert survey.

Materials and Methods. The materials of the study include: 1) legal and regulatory acts of Ukraine in the field of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, prevention of and counteraction to discrimination, domestic violence, and gender-based violence; 2) state strategies, programmes, and other policy and administrative documents; 3) official statistical and analytical materials of the National Police of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as international organizations; 4) the results of the author’s expert survey conducted in July–August 2025 among representatives of the professional and civil society communities of Odesa region (n=317). The study employed methods of quantitative and qualitative sociological analysis.

Results. The article establishes that the current public policy on the protection of women’s rights in Ukraine has a developed legal foundation; however, its effectiveness is constrained by unstable financing, unequal access to specialized services, insufficient coordination between central and local authorities, a low level of institutional trust, and the fragmented nature of the data system. Based on the expert survey, it was found that the most problematic areas remain the labor market, political representation, the law enforcement system, and the prevention of violence against women. It was determined that the priority directions for improving policy include strengthening liability for discrimination and violence, expanding access to legal, psychological, and social assistance, developing shelters and crisis services, introducing gender-oriented education, enhancing women’s economic independence, gender-responsive budgeting, and implementing a system of performance indicators in government programmes. The proposed set of measures may be used to improve legislative, institutional, and administrative mechanisms in the field of protecting women’s rights.

Prospects. The prospects for further research are connected with the development of a system of quantitative and qualitative indicators for assessing the effectiveness of public policy on the protection of women’s rights at the national and regional levels, conducting comparative regional studies, as well as a more in-depth analysis of new forms of gender-based violence, in particular digital violence, and state response mechanisms to them. This will facilitate a shift from a predominantly normative-descriptive approach to evidence-based governance in the field of ensuring women’s rights in Ukraine.