The fruitful scientific and educational cooperation of the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" with the security guards of the Themis continues – within the Memorandums of Cooperation with the Territorial Administration of the Court Security Service in Poltava Region and the Patrol Police Administration of the Department of Patrol Police in Poltava Region, a training seminar "Implementing the gender approach. Gender balance as a guarantee of equal opportunities" was held on the basis of Poltava Polytechnic, the participants of which became scientific and pedagogical workers as well as employees of the university. During an active discussion and practical interactive exercises with experienced coaches, the participants learned about the gender roles imposed by our society for men and women, analyzed real cases of gender discrimination and "debunked" gender stereotypes existing in modern information and educational environment.
On the initiative and with full support of the administration of the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" in order for teachers to acquire additional knowledge about gender equality, preventing gender discrimination in the educational process and outside the boundaries of a leading institution of higher education, achieving gender balance, court security guards and police officers of the Poltava region conducted an educational and an informative training where the most common gender stereotypes were presented, using real examples of "black and white", "pink and blue", misconceptions about a clear division of gender roles were debunked. After all, girls do not always have a fragile physique, like pink color or sequined dresses, and boys are fond of the exact sciences and wear dark blue or gray clothes, trying not to stand out from the crowd of their peers.
Members of the Ukrainian Association of Women in Law Enforcement (UAWLE) – an employee of the Patrol Police Administration of the Patrol Police Department in the Poltava Region Nataliia Novikova, and leading specialist of the Human Resources Department, press secretary of the Territorial Department of the Court Security Service in the Poltava Region, a 2011 university graduate Kateryna Hryhorenko, as well as a specialist of the Territorial Administration of the Court Security Service in the Poltava Region Hevorh Hevorhian. Congratulating the participants of the training seminar, Kateryna Hryhorenko emphasized the importance of the results of the fruitful scientific and educational cooperation of the university, the Court Security Service and the Police Patrol Administration in the Poltava region in providing the necessary practical knowledge to scientists, teachers and students. Future plans include involving an even larger number of progressive student youth in the discussion of socially significant topics, the choice of which is unlimited.
According to the co-organizers, the topic of this training was chosen not by chance, because the vast majority of women and even men had to face real-life cases of bullying, harassment by management, colleagues for being "not like everyone else" in their lives and professional activities. Unfortunately, social and family stereotypes often imposed from childhood lead to complete physical and moral disharmony, when an already formed personality loses its own self, forced to obey circumstances. The coaches talked about the main international legal framework regulating gender equality, went through the definitions of "sex", "gender role", "gender", "gender stereotypes".
"Today's event aims to dispel fears that the March 8 holiday will suddenly disappear, women will suddenly start oppressing men, and society will collapse completely. In fact, this is not the case at all, and Natalka Novikova and I, as members of the Ukrainian Association of Women in Law Enforcement, will prove it with real-life stories and practical cases. Let's start a little with the regulatory part to help those present understand why we, as state and law enforcement agencies, have to work with this.
Then, in practical exercises, we will go over interesting gender stereotypes and generalize the existing life experience. The practical value of such trainings is that we communicate, openly express our own position and, under the influence of arguments, can make our own balanced decision. You must admit that when people talk about "simple female happiness", it's annoying, and you want to ask about the deeper meaning of this concept. After all, this is, again, a stereotype that says that women are supposed to keep the family, cook and raise children. And for men, it is a completely different role – they need to work, earn money and develop in the chosen field. These misconceptions are ingrained in our consciousness, if we analyze them in detail, we will see that the vast majority of them are non-existent," – commented Kateryna Hryhorenko.
Gender stereotypes are a certain socially accepted vision of what it means not just to be born a male or a female, but to be them. Such stereotypes exist in any society, and Ukraine is no exception. The participants recalled real-life cases when they encountered stereotypical misconceptions and came to the common conclusion that often the root of the problem of gender approach lies in the educational or family environment. Parents, relatives, teachers consciously or semi-consciously push children to choose their own stereotypical role, fearing resonance or public condemnation. The harm of such stereotyping is that we create a certain ideal template and expect everyone to behave this way.
The most common stereotypes relate to gender roles, the role behavior of men and women. One of the funniest and most absurd stereotypes is that blue is a color for boys and pink is for girls. In the 60s of the 20th century, one researcher analyzed data on men and women and for convenience chose to denote these two colors – blue and pink. And since that time it somehow became the norm.
An important point is that female professions are mostly low-paid and non-prestigious. Imagine, until 2017, there were about 530 professions that were prohibited for women. This was often explained as a concern for women's reproductive health.
The training participants learned about effective cases in the fight against gender discrimination: in the case of an employer, one can refer to the current legislation prohibiting such discrimination, find real data that refutes stereotypes. The coaches encouraged the audience to express their own opinions more actively, discuss and look for arguments to confirm or refute this or that opinion.
During practical classes, teachers and employees of Poltava Polytechnic worked in four groups, considering the most common cases of gender discrimination. The thematic cards contained a number of problematic situations, solutions to which the participants sought collectively:
- Your colleague at work is responsible for most of the childcare duties, while his wife handles most of the family's finances. How do you feel about this division of responsibilities?
- You are participating in a discussion about gender identity, but you hear from one of the participants that a person is born with a certain gender and cannot change it. How do you react to this comment?
- Your friend invites you to a black-and-white-themed party. You know that there will be people at a party who may feel discriminated against because of their skin color. Would you accept the invitation, why yes or why not?
- You are in a group where one person expresses transphobic views. How do you react to this situation?
Having successfully completed the trainings, academic workers and employees of Poltava Polytechnic received certificates.
At the end of the training, the participants exchanged positive impressions, expressing their wish that modern Ukrainian society would finally get rid of gender-discriminatory judgments passed down by parents, educational traditions, and surroundings.
It should be noted that the National University "Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic" is one of the leading Ukrainian universities that has a number of valid agreements on cooperation as well as scientific and educational partnerships with law enforcement bodies and state institutions – the National Police of Ukraine, the Cyber Police Department, the Administration of Patrol Police in Poltava Region, Poltava Scientific and Research Forensic Center of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Main Territorial Department of Justice in Poltava Region, Poltava Regional Prosecutor's Office, International Association of Polygraph Examiners, Territorial Department of the State Bureau of Investigation, located in the city of Poltava, National Scientific Center "Hon. Prof. M. S. Bokarius Forensic Science Institute", the State Service of Education Quality in the Poltava Region, the State Audit Service of Ukraine, local self-government bodies.
It should be recalled that court security guards and police officers conducted a training session on first aid and safety basics at the Polytechnic, and an interactive training with rescuers took place at the university as part of the "16 Days Against Violence" campaign.
Recently, the Head of the research direction of UkrGasVydobuvannya Mykhailo Bratakh held a motivational meeting with students of the Polytechnic, and the International Mother Language Day was celebrated at the Polytechnic with a traditional scientific and artistic event.
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