Woman prays in front of a destroyed house in war-torn Ukraine. Pavlo/AdobeStock.com

Writing about her experiences during the Second World War, Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich said that ‘women’s war has its own colours, its own smells, its own lighting, and its own range of feelings. Its own words.’ This observation rings true for every conflict, including the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war: women suffer different and additional burdens of conflict, and where their distinct experiences are disregarded, their suffering increases.

UN Women’s Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) of Ukraine highlights that the ‘multisectoral impact of the crisis is affecting women disproportionately’ and lists gender-based violence (GBV), an increased care burden and a lack of access to gender-specific healthcare as some of the issues disproportionately affecting women. These issues, the RGA explains, are heightened by a lack of representation of women in formal decision-making roles.

Yet, these labours are largely unpaid and informed by traditional gender roles – reinforced in Ukraine by the resurgence in the country of the cult of Berehynia, protectress of the home in Slavic mythology. In many cases these labours contribute to women’s suffering. The increased care burden, for example, exacerbated by the destruction or closure of schools and nurseries, has resulted in many women being unable to work.

‘More women than men depend on social assistance’, highlights the Third Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment of Ukraine – undertaken jointly by the World Bank, the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the UN – while ‘the total income per capita in male-headed households was on average 20 percent higher than female-headed households.’ In addition to causing stress and anxiety, this financial situation increases women’s security risks and pushes some into the unprotected informal sectors of the economy.

Internally displaced women (IDW), who constitute the majority of internally displaced people in Ukraine, feel this poverty most acutely. A BBC Media Action study reported that, of the IDW surveyed, 52 per cent reported experiencing a negative impact on their employment due to the war, compared to 32 per cent of non-IDW. And the shelters housing many IDW often offer no relief, with reports in the UN Women’s Rapid Gender Analysis of heighted gender-based violence in these spaces and women expressing a fear of walking between buildings, where paths are secluded and unlit.

Thus, gendered social roles and a lack of gender-sensitivity involved in formal decision-making processes are not only issues unto themselves but contribute to and compound risks to women’s physical safety, financial security and psychological wellbeing. ‘Ignoring gender considerations can perpetuate inequalities, hamper development efforts, and undermine the overall effectiveness of interventions. Prioritising a gender perspective is essential for promoting social justice and sustainable development’, says Mariia Kozubska, Program Coordinator at Kvinna till Kvinna.

It’s not only within Ukraine that the additional burdens of conflict facing women are exposed. Millions of traumatised individuals have landed in countries with insufficient infrastructure in place to support them – 90 per cent of these individuals are women and children.

Discussing her prior work at a clinic supporting people fleeing to the US from Ukraine, Sarah Max, Director of Legal Affairs with the Housing Authority of Snohomish County, in Washington State, describes her observations of gendered trauma. ‘On top of the trauma of coming out of that type of conflict, typically the women and the children […] carried an additional trauma because of either violence against their person that hadn’t been enacted against the men’ or because mothers possessed a dual burden of not only reckoning with their own trauma, but also helping their child navigate their own distress.

This, Max argues, has implications for rebuilding a stable life. ‘How do you expect a mother to complete a college course or hold down a job when she knows her child can’t get through a meal without vomiting if they hear a loud noise in the street?’ she says. ‘[T]his is a completely untenable burden for any one person to carry, and there are no supports built out to help these families walk through that and get to the other side.’

Bruce Macallum, Co-Chair of the IBA Poverty and Social Development Committee and a practitioner in international public law based in Victoria, Canada, expresses similar concerns regarding the absence of tailored assistance. ‘Whatever regulations and rules exist, they are designed to deal with a general situation and […] often there are gaps with respect to needs that are not considered by the legal regulations’, he says.

Yet, Max argues, ‘policy is not sacrosanct. It’s a tool you use. You use the tool and then when you need a different tool, you pick up a different tool.’ This flexibility allows policy and law to be adapted to scenarios not previously foreseen or account for voices previously ignored. ‘I very much come from a school of thought that law and policy is not sacrosanct in and of itself. It exists to serve the people, and when it no longer serves the people it needs to change’, Max says.

But, in order for change to happen, women and girls need their perspectives to be considered. Macallum outlines a need for ‘consultation and decision-making processes that take into account the effect on women of particular policy changes. And that can be addressed through greater integration of women in the decision-making processes that affect them.'