PROJECT DESCRIPTION.

Theory and Methodology of Research:

Looking through different theoretical frameworks in which social and economic development of societies is being analyzed today, I decided to settle down my research along the lines of human development approach (as an alternative of pure economic development theories of liberalism, monetarism and SAPs, Keith Griffin as the major reference). This particular framework has been already accepted to a significant degree in a theoretical discourse on social and economic development, and, what is more important, is becoming more and more sound in institutional, public policy and political worlds on the international level.

The idea of human development approach, as a developmental theory, is that societal progress in itself needs much more facets than through pure economic growth. Rather, it stresses the importance of other, non-economic goals, it is people-centered, not economic peformance-centered approach. The end of the development is seen to be the improvement of the quality of life and enlarging human capacities, sometimes even by limiting economic growth and maximization of the wealth. In short, it is a combination of a sustainable economic progress, investing in social capital and ecologically-aware development.

Under such framework, the idea of social investing, and investing in women particularly- in labor, education, health, family planning- is regarded as an important part of the developmental strategy. Besides being an issue of social justice, it directly reduces the poverty and promotes economic growth (more efficient use of resources, higher productivity), contributes to environmentally sustainable development. It also produces significant social goals- lower fertility, better household nutrition, reduced infant, child and maternal mortality, better health and education of the children.

As for the research methodology, conventional methods of general statistics and quantitative research, which were used for the study of economic progress and social development in the previous years, is much of help. As a rule, they had different ideological basis and, therefore, were built up to measure different things (such as GNP, interest rates, FDI, etc.), but not human development and, in particular, women participation. At the same time, different types of qualitative, longitudinal and small-scale research are proved to be more useful as research tools in analyzing human development and changes in women's lives in particular. Today, they are becoming more and more applied in the studies on international development by different international institutions and organizations. Therefore, in my research it would be more appropriate to rely more on qualitative methods of social sciences, using statistical data for the general reference. The research itself rests on case studies. I preferred case studies because of the greater depth and quality of the material they provide in comparison with the surveys. A disadvantage is, of course, that generalizations from such studies are much more limited than those from surveys. However, at this point, the purpose of the research is to extend the knowledge of the factors influencing women's employment patterns and to find possible solutions to the problems arising from them.

As the main concepts of the research, I am using the concepts of productive and reproductive roles (as modification of Moulinex categories of women's roles, widely applied for the analysis and research of the third world women). The definition of them is given below: Productive roles: includes all activities directed at their maintenance activities for the daily and future well being of the current and next generations (usually within the context of the family and household). It is wider than conventional concept of employment (understood as exchange of labor for a cash or kind), since the latter overlooks various types of productive work to which women contribute heavily. Productive roles, therefore, besides employment include non-market and subsistence production, production for self-consumption and unpaid work that contributes to the family production. Reproductive roles: comprises child rearing responsibilities and domestic tasks undertaken by women, required to guarantee the maintenance and reproduction of the labor force. It includes not only biological reproduction, but also the care and maintenance of the workforce (husband, working children, and other working family members) and the future workforce (infants and school-going children).

A critical connection here is that women's productive roles are conditioned by that in reproduction. Being married, having children and other dependants, position of husband- all these factors determine what kind of employment a woman will be seeking and what her motivations will be. Also, the fact that women's reproductive work, as a rule, is not visible (and is not valued) is important. It leads to a situation when men do not have clearly defined reproductive roles, while women's devotion to the domestic work, particularly childcare, remains extraordinarily rigid and persistent. Seen as a continuation of her natural abilities, this 'natural work' is separated from the paid work, and usually excluded from economic analysis (which is not correct). In this regard, in the present research women's productive activities will be analyzed "through the lenses" of the reproductive work women perform. Only in such a way, it will be possible to understand current patterns of female economic participation and develop the strategies to assist women to integrate better in a newly forming economic system.

Research hypotheses:
1/ Contrary to the improvement in the civic/political rights associated with democratic governance, Ukrainian women are losing their economic rights.
2/ Loss in economic rights is expressed by marginalization and under-utilization of female workforce: shift of female employment into the informal sector, low paid and unqualified jobs in the private sector, and unemployment in the public sector.
3/ Absence of gender awareness in conducting economic reforms leads to gender bias and discrimination against women on the market.
4/ Nationalistic and religious ideological frameworks support subordination of women, encouraging their exclusion from the public sector and propagating home-keeping and maternity roles for women.
5/ Lack of political mobilization among women as well as general public unawareness results in the absence of conscious efforts to change the situation.
6/ Women, in their majority, do not seek domestification and would prefer to be employed.

Pre-existed Situation on the Labor Market for Ukraine:what kind of gender labor market distortions and inefficiencies, what particular types of sexual division of labor, major constrains for women existed in the labor markets, and what the major policy priorities were. The goal is to identify major characteristics of employment for women existed in the labor market at the point of the beginning of reforms.

• Thanks to the ideological goal of full female participation in the economic production, supported by an economic need to offset the labor shortage, a significant degree of women emancipation and gender economic equality has been achieved in the Soviet Union. In general, women were involved in the labor force almost at the same level of participation as men . Thus, the vast majority of women were employed. Other significant indicators of gender equality included high and rising level of education for women, on the same level as for men, legal guaranties for protection of women's workplace and numerous social security regulations, extensive network of social provision and health care facilities for women and their families.
• The massive scale of female participation did not, however, eradicate the differences between male and female workers in the wages, skill status, power and even time. The clear and constant pattern of occupational and sectoral segregation by sex existed. Women predominated in economic sectors and occupations with lower status (social services, education, culture/art, light industry and services) and lower level of compensation . At the same time, an uneven distribution of women across economic sectors and occupations was combined with their under-representation in managerial and high skill positions (even in the sectors where women traditionally dominated) . The consequences were sexual segregation of the labor market, with feminization of certain professions and a considerable gap between male and female earnings. In 1989, the publications on the figures on wage distribution by sexes in the USSR confirms that full time female earnings were only 65-70% of those of males, despite women's higher educational level .
• Along with the general high level of education and training in Ukraine, the level of education of women was considered also high by international standards (even by comparison with industrialized countries). However, some gender differences existed on the level and type of education. A much larger share of women had only primarily and secondary education. On the secondary level, they tended to have more vocational training . Also, women received less on-the-job training than men, due to their household obligations that limited their time and professional mobility.
• The interaction of women's work and family roles contributed to a sharp differentiation between the activities and motivations of male and female workers. Even though for both men and women work and family roles were closely related, for women family remained a primarily responsibility . So, family roles affected the scope and pattern of female employment. As a result, women had different rationale in employment: they choose easier jobs, with convenient hours, close to home and with pleasant co-workers and managers. Women were less demanding than their male counterparts in choosing the job. Also, their mobility was limited and work satisfaction was based on working conditions rather than on the content of the job. Thus, not because of the lack of initiative and motivation, as it was often stated, but because of the difficult combination of social roles and constant necessity to compromise between the family and work roles, women seemed to be less career-oriented.
• Designed as a means to free women from the hardship of the family and household responsibilities, numerous social provisions and legal guarantees in reality explicitly encouraged women to view their work from the perspective of their roles as wives and mothers. Family responsibilities of the soviet women intruded into the workplace to a degree unusual even in western industrial societies. Specific provisions for family leaves, for leave to care for sick children, for various exemptions of pregnant and mothers, were based on the view that childcare and family responsibilities were exclusively female and took a priority that women's work arrangements should accommodate. For the employers, such provisions caused them to consider women unreliable and undesirable workers. Thus, the "social welfare" package turned to be discriminative against women rather than facilitating their equal participation.
• Patterns of education, marriage, divorce, family size and employment existed in USSR support the idea of egalitarian style of family life as the predominant one. Access to education, employment, independent income, low birth rates, relatively late age of marriage, high divorce rates and declining family size, all are to be found in Ukraine, which speaks for the egalitarian relations in the families.
• The so-called perestroika time had uneven effect on women's lives. On one hand, Gorbachev's initiatives gave visibility to women's issues (promotion of more women into political life, creation of a national women organization that would link the soviet women's committee to a broad network of local women councils, emphasis on the need for new attention to social and family policy). On the other hand, however, economic efforts to promote rapid economic growth and technological innovation, call for expansion of service sector carried the prospect of shifting women's labor resources away from the industry. Many of the targeted areas were primarily female fields, offering the possibility of improved wages and status. However, since in general economic reforms were limited, contradictory, with more political attainment than economic efficiency, they had little effect in reality .
• A more significant consequence of 1980s reforms was connected to the ideological vision of women's role in society. In 1987 thus Gorbachev argued that one of the goals of perestroika included the return of women to their "purely women mission" . Since during the socialism women's truly female destiny could not be realized, it was anticipated that during perestroika women can devote themselves to housework, child rearing and family life. Among the practical steps undertaken to help to remedy the problem, Gorbachev pledged to expand on the social policies for women that had existed in the past (increasing the number of day care centers, extending the opportunity for part time employment, maternity benefits, increased provision of consumer goods and services). Thus, Gobachev ideas in redefining women's roles had prepared grounds for even more conservative ideologies of nationalism, nationalistic patriotism, various forms of religious and social conservatism that emerged soon after the dissolution of the soviet union.

Main Directions of the Economic Reforms in Ukraine and Changes They Brought to the Labor Market.
In 1991-93, a new reform program of stabilization and restructuring program was pronounced. It aimed to stimulate production and included industrial conversion of the military production, price liberalization, credit and export restriction, cuts in state subsidies and public expenditure, de-regulation, anti-monopoly and privatization, development of high tech industries. Even though in talks it looked like industrial policy of restructuring with a plethora of measures and pronouncements, in reality, however, it was an ad hoc reform by decree and edict, partial, contradicting, often not implemented. The main reason was political: the lack of agreement upon a coherent reform policy, national reform strategy and policy-making, policy-implementing mechanisms. Strong pressures for shock therapy so popular among international financial agencies and reformers from other countries in the region were met with high skepticism and suspicion about the feasibility of the orthodox shock therapy strategy. Together with the lack of consensus about the paths of reforms and internal political crisis, it led to disastrous results: hyperinflation, fall in production, federal budget deficit, rapidly falling living standards, and poverty. Mid 1994 elections brought change in the political leadership in the country, which seemed to ensure a space for structural reform. However, slack monetary policy, continued constant credit emissions to public sector (credits to agriculture and state enterprises increased by over 40 times), absence of structural reform, partial price liberalization, inefficient new tax system and political incompetence ran the country into further economic decline, run-away inflation and social instability. In sum, the major trends of economic reform in Ukraine included:

• continuing long-time support of state enterprises of heavy industry from the side of government, either directly through subsidies, or indirectly through low interest credit. Among others, a special priority was given to the powerful industry enterprises (coal mining, metallurgy, heavy and military industries), which benefited from privileges even being in debt. Consumer goods enterprises, light industry and services, on the contrary, have often ended in economic difficulties, because of little bargaining power, absence of governmental credit/subsidies and new regulations on foreign trade, which significantly restricted their activity. It leads to two major consequences: first, partial industrial enterprise restructuring, defensive in character, mostly in military complex and lack of industrial restructuring. Secondly, open and invisible unemployment hit mostly light/services industries and hidden unemployment in heavy industries.
• Along with the strikingly low open unemployment rate (about 2% on the average), the rates of hidden unemployment became significant. By 1993, this type of unemployment was presumed to account for 25-30%of the employed . According to an estimate of the state employment service in 1996, massive surplus labor, or hidden unemployment within enterprises in forms of administrative leave, without pay or partial pay it reached 40%.
• Highly skilled technically qualified workers have been constantly underutilized during the whole period of reforms. Since minor changes in the economy and little property restructuring occurred, there have been relatively small changes in the employment structure (with a slight shift from industrial production towards services). In comparison with other Eastern Central European countries, Ukraine has a relatively small proportion of employment in trade and catering services, banking, insurance, and large one in education, culture and scientific research. Private sector did not became a source of jobs for the qualified workers, as it happened in other countries, and social services, education continued to be the major source of employment.
• State property fund, established to deal with small-scale privatization, did not succeed significantly till 1995/96, when finally the path of privatization increased markedly and more than 4000 medium and large-scale enterprises were privatized . Because in 1995 government introduced an additional incentive for enterprise managers (extra 5% preferential share allocation) if they complied with privatization procedures and meet the deadlines, it contributed to such pick-up in 1995/96 privatization. In 1997, the pace of privatization of medium and large scale enterprises was slowed down again, due to a new law on cash compensation (which reduced the attractiveness of compensation certificates as a means of mass privatization), as well as the delayed approval of 97' privatization program. Small-scale privatization was virtually completed by mid1997, with about 90% out of an estimated stock of 42000 small enterprises having been privatized. In general, privatization had little effect on enterprise governance, largely because the bulk of shares (85%) were given to the managers through preferred share allocation during closed subscription phase. As a result, relatively little has changed in the operation of many privatized enterprises.
• Perhaps, a key aspect of restructuring- shift into the informal and black economy that became the major source of employment. The growth of informal economy, mainly own-account activities acted mainly as a buffer to limit the fall in living standards and a source of employment. Estimates of the current size of the unrecorded sector differ, ranging from about 30% of the recorded sector, to almost 100% of the official economy. Nevertheless, it is obvious that informal economy is growing faster than officially recorded sectors . Much of the activities on the informal economy regarded illegal were petty trade and services, including economic tourism. Apart from trade, evidence suggests that informal and black market activities are concentrated in public catering, household services, agriculture, medical services, education.
• Growth of small-scale private agricultural production. The number of households producing vegetables on private plots increased by 2/3 between 1985 and 1993, and the number of urban households operating such plots doubled . In urban areas almost every second family was growing fruit and vegetables for their own consumption, for barter or for sale in open markets or on the streets, which is continuing to be a decisive trend till today..
• One of the strong incentives of the government - continuing provision of an extensive, centrally regulated set of social policies. However, its effectiveness was low, since social protection continued to be essentially universalistic, providing a wide range of benefits (considered as basic social rights, in accord with the principles of an old socialist system) . It has relied little on means-testing, or social assistance-type targeting of benefits, which would be more appropriate for the country in transition. Therefore, despite the governmental efforts, social problems remained largely unresolved, and social protection remained rather nominal than real.

Gender Analysis of Economic Changes: impact of policies on productive and reproductive activities of women, identification of different group of women most adversely affected by the changes.

• As transition started, it seemed that a reduction of women's employment would make economic sense, since industrial restructuring would bring additional men labor force to the market (coming from mass redundancies), while the costs of social provision for women, such as maternity eave and child care, will make the female labor force an extremely unattractive proposition for employers. So far, a supposed answer to the problem of economic reform for women was not combination of roles but turning back to "kids, kitchens and churches", fulfilling their biological destiny as wives and mothers. Overall, during the first phase of restructuring the trend of shifting women from paid to unpaid domestic labor intensified. Thus, women had to content themselves with job offering few career prospects or chances for job promotion. Women's part in decision making and management was reduced to a minimum.
• Registered unemployment statistics suggests that women workers have been disproportionately hit by unemployment, especially during the first years of reforms . Mainly, it was a consequence of the state policies of ceasing the subsidies for light industry and service sectors, which caused mass layoffs of the workers (women constituted the majority in these sectors). For other sectors, women were most represented as clerical and administrative personnel, who also were first getting fired. Among others, the group of well-educated white-collar women-workers (the so-called employees) had the highest rate of unemployment . The vast majority of such women were employed in the state sector, where the cutbacks were particularly sharp (in administrative apparatus and among engineers and technicians).
• High numbers of well-educated unemployed women (technicians, economists, administrators, scientists) is the tendency shared by other ECE/fSU countries in the first yeas of reforms. Later, due to the economic restructuring, unemployment normally shifted towards categories of workers with lower educational levels, and employees with higher education would found employment in the private sector. In Ukraine, however, it was not the case, and unemployment among highly educated professional women turned into the constant pattern. Still, private sector could not offer for them employment opportunities, consistent with their educational and professional level, which leads to significant under-utilization of their promisingly large potential.
• Besides unemployment, poverty has become another major problem for women employed in the state sector. Women's earnings have been especially prone to the high inflation and rising prices, since they were usually lower those of men. It resulted in a situation, where women-headed households as well as single women-pensioners became especially prone to the poverty. If not redundant from their jobs, women faced other kinds of problems, such as food/cloth shortages, inability to pay for the housing, medicine, numerous child-related expenses, etc.
• For all women, either employed in the public sector, private, or self-employed, economic reforms meant loss of most of social (family and welfare) benefits. Inability of the government to provide them on the adequate level soon was substituted by a number of newly formed paid services. Again, for women that most need such services (single mothers, women with many children, handicapped and pensioners) are not affordable. Therefore, they could hardly represent a viable alternative for these target groups.
• Privatization, as it was conducted in Ukraine, has been disadvantageous for women in several ways. First of all, old party nomenklatura (exclusively male) has managed to transform its political power into the economical one and ensure property rights during the first years of transition. Thus, financial capital and network resources were accumulated into the hands of male bureaucrats and former party leaders. The voucher system, adopted as an instrument of privatization, was particularly advantageous to the management of industrial enterprises, who were also mostly men. At the same time, the largely female dominated institutions of the cultural establishment or service sector offer no comparable opportunities to acquire potentially valuable property rights. Moreover, those enterprises where women were managers (schools, kindergartens, etc.) often appeared into the so-called negative list (enterprises that cannot be privatized, about 6000 in 1997).
• In the private sector, which became a source of jobs to a large number of workers, most of the opportunities for women are in poorly paid secretarial, clerk, service employment, subcontracting, manual work and other low ranking, low prestigious positions (rather than in managerial, supervisory or entrepreneurs roles). The major problems for women employed in the private sector included those of over-qualification, absence of adequate protective labor legislation, absence of adequate social security networks, sexual/psychological and social types of abuse and harassment.
• As for the women themselves, their motivations in finding employment in the private/informal economy are dictated by economic reasons of survival and necessity rather than stability or growth. Their involvement in the informal economy usually comes as a part of the survival strategy for women and their families. Self-employment has become the answer out of despair to the severe shortage of formal employment possibilities and to the absence of the effective social security system. Data shows that most of women's income-generating enterprises work at the lowest level of risk and for extremely low profit/wages (street vending, services, teaching, cottage industry). Therefore, women as workers are more likely to be found "on the edge" of the professional pyramid, in least profitable, less secure occupations.
• Besides women employed in the informal economy, there is a very small category of businesswomen, who run their own enterprises (in services and trade mainly). Their small numbers are explained by general hostile environment, lack of access to capital (formal and informal as well- to banks, governmental and international loan programs, illegal sources), lack of knowledge on how to run business, lack of skills, self-confidence, information about the market, psychological prejudices towards women in business, exclusion from informal social networks that help to run business.
• Opening the borders and attempts to build up an open economy had its own specific gender outcomes: Ukrainian women have become extensively involved into the international businesses of international servants, bride trade, women trafficking and prostitution . The trend has been typical of that of any other third world country, where women become victims of their own ignorance, unawareness and dire economic situation. Among all countries of the region, Ukraine takes the lead in the numbers of women involved in trafficking and prostitution. So far, no legal regulation, governmental protection, or public campaign to deal with the issue has been organized.
• Since there has been no gender focus in the economic restructuring, most of the reforming has been gender blind. Given the essential degree of gender equality achieved during the socialist period, transition period is the time of regression for women. One of the major consequences of gender blindness of reforming is a denial of women's basic human economic and social rights. More and more do they become invisible from the public sphere, removed from the decision-making positions and confined to the private sphere and family (which is successfully used as a form of positive exclusion, as a form of control and subordination). Today, they are objects rather than active agents of transition, and the sources to change the situation are scarce.