Ukraine’s Education Ministry has approved the controversial textbook for teachers entitled “Family Values,” which asserts that “the task of women is to attract men.”
The book appeared in the list of recommended literature for the elective course “Family Values” aimed at children in the eighth and ninth grades. The list was published on Oct. 21 in a letter from the Education Ministry.
The book has been criticized by Ukrainian human rights activists and by Ukrainians on social media for perpetuating a stereotypical view of men and women’s gender roles, and for being sexist.
“(The quotes from the book) are just ridiculous,” Anastasya Melnychenko, an activist and the head of Studena, a non-government organization that fights for gender equality, told the Kyiv Post by phone on Oct. 28.
She said she was happy there had been a public outcry about the book, and demanded that the Education Ministry remove it from the list of recommended literature. She said that only five years ago people wouldn’t have had such a negative reaction.
According to the textbook “a real woman never argues, doesn’t prove that she is right, and doesn’t try to control the situation.”
The book also says that “while for a man it’s important to establish a social reality, women aim for a convenient reality (sometimes an illusion).”
“Instead of finally allowing women, half of Ukraine’s population, to develop their potential, they are once again put in a position that is secondary to men,” Melnychenko said.
The book also suggests that “strength, stamina bravery, courage, dedication, etc. are not feminine qualities” while “grace, mystery and coquetry are not (qualities that belong to) men”.
“Today we’ve got a community of masculine women and feminine men that has a serious impact on our life,” reads the book. “That results in a reduction in the social status of the family, the development of homosexual relationships, difficulties in upbringing children, and increasing levels of sickness and crime”.
The deputy head of Institute of Problems of Education, a unit of National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Oleksandr Melnyk, who authored “Family Values” told the Kyiv Post that textbook “is not designed to tell men and women how they are supposed to behave, and impose stereotypes.”
He said that the course in the textbook teaches kids various lessons, such as “accepting a child as they are” and helping children realize that “we are different, but we equal.”
The Ministry of Education said on its website on Oct. 28 that it would check the compliance of the textbook with the Ukrainian law on prohibiting discrimination. It said that if the book was not in compliance, it would be removed from the list of recommended literature.
