Our newspaper has already talked about the basic principles underlying the Action Plan for the implementation of gender equality principles in the practice of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, approved by the order of the rector on October 3, 2024. At the end of March, an expanded meeting of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Gender Equality Working Group was held, which was attended by representatives of a number of departments and the rector of the university, Anatoliy Melnychenko.
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"The action plan for the implementation of gender equality principles is a real roadmap, a definition of the route we will take in gender issues. It directly affects the activities of our university. Even the international rankings, which include the university, take into account the gender balance component,“ Anatolii Melnychenko said, addressing the participants of the meeting. ”The policy of forming the university's gender policy, gender equality, gender balance are general issues of our understanding and vision of the university's activities both at the management level and in the context of our main educational and scientific processes.
How it all started
The chairman of the working group, Assistant Rector, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Serhii Sydorenko, gave a detailed account of the history and prospects of work on implementing gender equality principles in the university's daily activities, as well as the tasks that will have to be solved. In particular, he recalled when, where, and how the university began to work in the field of implementing the principles of “ensuring gender equality, empowering all women and girls” (this is how the main principle of the international movement in addressing gender issues is formulated in Goal 5, one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015).
Therefore, in 2001, the university signed a Memorandum with UNDP on the establishment of the Ukrainian Center for Gender Education (UCGE) within the structure of the Department of International Cooperation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute as a tool to promote gender education in Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, as well as to participate in the implementation of the Platform for Action of the IV World Conference on Women in Beijing, in the implementation of the recommendations of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly "Women in 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century" and the UNDP's Gender in Development project, the national Gender Education in Ukraine Program. Since then, together with the UNESCO Chair of the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute “Higher Technical Education, Applied Systems Analysis and Informatics”, the UCUO has initiated a number of important initiatives in research, teaching and educational work, and international activities.
Their implementation was facilitated by the introduction of the position of advisor to the head of the organization on gender equality with two deputies at the KPI. Soon after, in 2004, the first major international gender conference in the country was held at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute under the auspices of UNESCO and with the participation of Valentyna Dovzhenko, Minister of Family, Children and Youth of Ukraine. In addition, with the participation of the UNESCO Chair of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute "Higher Technical Education, Applied Systems Analysis and Informatics", the university launched international scientific and practical conferences "Gender Component in the Structure of Higher Technical Education and Natural Sciences" and "Women in Science and Education: Past, Present, Future", which have become traditional. These conferences played a significant role in the development of the gender movement in the country as a whole: they drew the attention of society and democratic forces to the need to form a new legislative framework for gender equality in Ukraine. Among other significant gender-related events held in Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, the meeting mentioned the international project funded by the Government of Canada "Information Support for Gender Education in Ukraine", the international conference "Gender in Nuclear Technology" and many other projects implemented in cooperation with other countries.
KPI continued to provide its own premises and infrastructure for events on the gender movement in Ukraine, was active in the socio-political dimension, in the media, including international ones, and gradually became one of the prominent platforms for uniting proactive democratic forces in this area. A representative of the university was appointed to the board of the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sports of Ukraine. Moreover, Yulia Strebkova, associate professor of the Faculty of Sociology and Law, was delegated to the working group of the Interfactional Association of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "Equal Opportunities" and the working group of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and International Relations.
Gender movement at the university today
Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the beginning of the active gender movement at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. During this period, deepening the principles of gender equality played a significant role in the implementation of the KPI Development Strategies. The role of women in management at the level of the university and its subdivisions has increased. Democratization processes deepened. Largely due to the activity of women scientists, international project and grant activities have been launched - there are many examples of this.
... On March 25 this year, the Cabinet of Ministers approved an operational plan for the implementation of the Strategy for the Implementation of Gender Equality in Education until 2030. The main document, the Strategy for Implementing Gender Equality in Education until 2030, was adopted in December 2022. This is the second updated operational plan for implementation: the first one was designed for 2022-2024, and the current one is for 2025-2027. One of its main goals is to strengthen the role of educational institutions in ensuring gender equality. This, by the way, meets the requirements of a number of European regulations in the field of educational and research activities. Moreover, the implementation of some of them, in particular the requirements of the European Commission to have Gender Equality Plans (GEP) as a condition for the admission of project proposals to the competitions of the EU Horizon Europe program (in 2021-2027), has a direct impact on decision-making when determining the winners among the projects that are nominated for competitions of European project and grant programs as applicants for funds for relevant research.
At the March meeting of the working group, moderated by Olena Akimova, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Law, the first steps towards strengthening gender components in the university's work were identified. First of all, it was decided to monitor the results of the implementation of the principles of gender equality in order to determine the initial positions of the university in the gender issue and to make further management decisions. The task is to study the possibility of introducing a rating of units on the implementation of gender equality principles at the university, develop an appropriate methodology, and implement it as a pilot project in 2025-2026. In addition, in order to overcome gender biases in certain engineering specialties - those that society traditionally (and mistakenly) considers to be exclusively male - incentives will be provided for female applicants during the admission campaign to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Moreover, it was decided to help female students (and, in fact, male students) in their studies by introducing mentoring programs.
By the way, due to the specifics of engineering education, or rather, the specialties that can be obtained in such universities, gender issues are quite acute not only for Ukrainian technical universities, including KPI, but also for universities in other countries. In a conversation with representatives of the editorial boards of the Kyiv Polytechnic and Svit newspapers, Sergiy Sydorenko said: "The gender movement was strongest in technical universities, especially in the Baltic States and other countries. In Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands, the problems of gender parity were most acutely raised in technical universities." It should be added that it is known to be quite effective there. Actually, as well as in other European countries. Therefore, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is not paving its own way, but joining the pan-European university movement.