What Motivates Ukrainian Women to Choose a Military Service in Warfare?

Ihor Prikhodko,Natalia Yurieva,Olexander Timchenko,Karyna Fomenko,Oleksandr Kernickyi,Ilona Kostikova,Mykola Tovma

doi:10.18662/brain/11.3/108

Abstract

Despite the fact that large-scale active hostilities have been ongoing in Ukraine since 2014, in recent years there has been a tendency to increase the number of women who want to connect their lives with the military profession. Objectives: to identify the characteristics of the professional motivation of female military personnel (N = 477) of the National Guard of Ukraine with different professional status. Methodology: the survey method using three questionnaires: “Questionnaire for determining the effectiveness of the service and combat missions by female military personnel”, “Questionnaire for studying the motivation for the professional choice of a law enforcement profession”, “Questionnaire for the study of the socio-psychological characteristics of women in military service”. Results. The survey revealed the types of motivation that ensure the adaptation and self-realization of women in the military sphere: among female contract service members the pragmatic type prevails, and by female cadets – institutional type. For female cadets who had just begun to study the military profession, the main motives for choosing were self-realization in professional activity, achieving success in a military career and usefulness to society. Female contract service members with experience of military service consider professional self-realization and material support as the main motives when choosing a profession. Currently, these motives contribute to the high-quality performance of official duties by Ukrainian women military personnel and ensure the high efficiency of their service in ordinary and extreme conditions.

Highlights

Last six years after the “Revolution of Dignity” (November 2013 – February 2014), active military operations have been carried out in Eastern Ukraine, in which military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU) against illegal armed groups (IAG) participate (Melnyk et al, 2019)
The commanders noted that the female military personnel of both groups did not fully have professional competencies, which limited their ability to organize themselves in professional activities and to perform command and administrative functions
We found that the professional activity of female NGU military personnel, like that of the male, in combat operations shows the most effective result when the personality structure of a military specialist meets the basic requirements for a specific professional activity

Summary

Introduction

Last six years after the “Revolution of Dignity” (November 2013 – February 2014), active military operations have been carried out in Eastern Ukraine, in which military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU) against illegal armed groups (IAG) participate (Melnyk et al, 2019). Modern processes of democratization of public relations, the formation of new ideas about male and female roles, new opportunities for self-realization have enabled women to participate more actively in military service. The problems of female service members performing missions in the war zone are associated with deficiencies in the legal framework governing women's military service, the specifics of medical and material support, and insufficient study of gender issues in the AFU (Vetrov, 2016). In the US, France, Estonia, Latvia, etc., which actively promoting opportunities for women’s self-realization in the national armed forces, the regulatory framework has been created and considerable practical experience has been generated (Biank, 2013; Hrytsai, 2016; Martsenyuk et al, 2015)

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion