Antonina Lukenchuk

Comparative Analysis of Western-european, American and Ukrainian: Women-centered Thinkers: Implications for Woman's Education Antonina Lukenchuk

This research focuses on the concepts of female freedom, independence, liberty, and a feminine ideal within Western-European, American, and Ukrainian traditions. The study explores the works of Friedan, Elshtain, Steinem, de Beauvoir, Kobrynska, Kobylianska, and Ukrainka. While Western women-centered thinkers prioritized economic, social, and political issues with regard to woman¿s position in the public and private realms, Ukrainian female writers, in contrast, drew extensively from their national stories, ancient and modern. Christianity and spiritual ideals had a much stronger influence on Ukrainian writers than political or economic theories. ¿Feminists despite themselves,¿ these Ukrainian authors embodied the characters that they created in their radical and transformational beliefs and actions. Both traditions share similar concerns with the dilemmas facing contemporary women in their respective societies. Common dangers and costs threaten woman¿s full liberation under a global market economy where male privilege remains entrenched. Without full participation of women in decision-making processes, democracy for women can be eroded in the West and stifled in Ukraine.