Feminist Perspective on Russia’s War in Ukraine: Hear Our Voices

Feminist Perspective on Russia’s War in Ukraine: Hear Our Voices provides readers with the necessary tools to investigate the intersection of war (and peace-building) and gender and sexuality, not only through a general feminist lens but more precisely through a Ukrainian feminist lens, as the country has been under the pressure of Russia’s hegemonic vision of gender since 2014. Indeed, while it has been over 800 days since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the book makes clear that the war really started in 2014… As gender has been a significant motif in the “clash of values” between East and West–pro-Russian and pro-European understandings of society–the book invites readers to engage with the conflict in Ukraine from multiple scalar vantage points, placing gender (as well as racial) issues at the heart of the geopolitical crisis. By highlighting personal stories on par with an analysis of state policies, the collection of chapters shows how developing the fields of feminist security studies and feminist foreign policy contributes to countering the hypermasculine narratives propagated by the aggressor.

This book is indispensable for anyone who seeks to understand Ukraine’s steadfast defiance in the face of Russia’s war. Maryna Shevtsova has brought together an outstanding interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners to illuminate and theorize the lived experience of war through a Ukrainian feminist lens that is generous and groundbreaking. The authors narrate and theorize the contributions and resistance practices of women and the LGBTQ community during the war–and the novel ways that gender and sexual identity have interacted with the war effort.

This unique collection brings together scholars and activists who, on the verge of writing, have faced massive changes concerning their own lives and respective profession after the full-scale attack on Ukraine. It is with this in mind that Maryna Shevtsova has collected essays that truly speak to the international feminist (scientific) community, showing what a decolonial feminist approach in international relations, peace, and security studies might look like in the present time. Ranging from analyses of masculinity and femininity in times of war, a critical reading of the feminist foreign policy agenda, a decolonial perspective on peace, to how a non-Western view on the history of the region can describe developments fully, this is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand how lived experiences look like in times of war and what we can all learn from these rich insights.

Maryna Shevtsova is an MSCA-Cofund EUTOPIA postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a senior FWO fellow with KU Leuven, Belgium.