Women’s Dimensions of the Past: Perceptions, Experiences, Representations

The monograph explores little-known aspects of the historical experience of Ukrainian women in the context of the prevailing social ideas, legal norms, social institutions, and common practices of the relevant era (from the late seventeenth to the early twenty-first century). Through the prism of literature, epistolary, folklore, cinema, and visual art, the author traces the cultural (self-)representations of women. The successes and difficulties of women’s entry and self-realization in professional environments and urban spaces in the early twentieth century are examined. The complex processes of women’s unification and self-organization in interaction with the authorities, in the diaspora, and in the dissident movement show the ambiguity of women’s activism. The historical dimensions of gender-based violence are highlighted through the analysis of court cases, archival documents, and oral history materials. The monograph presents various approaches to the study of the key issues of women’s history, shows the informative potential and limitations of various types of historical sources, and opens up hitherto unknown pages of women’s past. The book will be a valuable resource for teachers, students, and researchers studying Ukrainian history, as well as for women’s movement activists and human rights defenders working to overcome gender discrimination in Ukraine.

The Center for Urban History worked on the book together with the Ukrainian Association of Women’s History Researchers in partnership with the Ethnology Institute National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Kyiv Office-Ukraine.

To read introduction

To order the book, please write us on our e-mail address: [email protected]