Beyond March 8: why gender equality is a security issue for Europe

“Gender equality supports conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery. Gender inequality makes conflict more likely and peace less durable. Gender equality is thus at the heart of the UN’s peace and security apparatus and of peacekeeping.”

Sima Sami Iskandar Bahous (UN-Women) on the Women and peace and security – Security Council, 9700th meeting

8 March. The day of flowers, gestures, gifts.

The day of tenderness.

8 March, 1857. Strikes of textile and garment industry female workers against inhuman working conditions, 12-hour working day and low wages. New York streets are full of women demanding a better life. After that March event, the first women’s trade union was established.

The day of tenderness?

8 March, 1908. New York streets are full again: the demonstration was timed to the 50th anniversary of the strikes in 1857. Once again, women are demanding the electoral vote, protesting against horrible working conditions, and particularly against child labour. Hoses with ice water were used to disperse them. Eventually, the Socialist 8 March. The day of flowers, gestures, gifts.

The day of tenderness?

8 March 8, 1914. The International Women’s Day celebration was ultimately set on 8 March in Europe. The same year, the first celebration of International Women’s Day took place in Ukraine.

Over time, the connection to the feminist movement faded and was replaced with patriarchal narratives: 8 March has been reduced to symbolism, accompanied by performative gestures. The idea of solidarity among strong women defending their rights completely disappeared.

The day of power completely changed to the day of tenderness.

Even now, this symbolic framing diminishes gender equality to a so-called value, depreciating the real aim of showing how gender equality can serve as a strategic and security issue. Indeed, when equality is treated as decoration rather than an integral structure, it fails to manifest itself in political power, institutional inclusion, or security outcomes. Can the system be truly resilient if it is built only considering half of society and excluding the other from decision-making? Let me introduce an illustrative example of simple underestimation.

Across Europe, women remain underrepresented in security leadership roles: fewer women influence key decisions about defence and security, from armed forces to emergency services. In 2025, only five of the 27 EU defence ministers were women. Moreover, women are still underrepresented in law enforcement, accounting for just 30% of prison staff and 20% of police officers, also in the organisations that shape scientific recognition, leadership, and decision-making (31.1% of scientific researchers worldwide in 2022, according to UNESCO).

And that definitely matters.

Gender equality goes hand in hand with sustainable economic and environmental development, adding stability to democratic institutions. To prove it, let me take the participation and empowerment of women in politics in the Nordic countries. In Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, women make up between 37% and 45% of parliamentarians. Sweden takes the first place with 45% of women in parliament, while the world average proportion of women in governing authorities stands at 15%. You can definitely see the difference in numbers, but believe me, the difference in terms of experience is even bigger. During 2000-2005, Norway, according to the UN, performed best in the world’s indexes in the sphere of human development, which include indicators of life expectancy, access to information, health care and social insurance.

The case of the Nordic countries shows that a higher percentage of women in politics contributes to more intensive consideration of issues such as childcare, gender equality policy and policies against violence and sexual violence against women. Of course, in such circumstances, policy content and overall political culture are undergoing significant changes. This is further evidence that increasing women’s participation in government is extremely important for society. Not only as a confirmation of the thesis about “equality and democracy”, but also as a catalyst of change in policy content and practice.

What about my native country, Ukraine?

Nowadays, facing the terrible reality of full-scale war every day, Ukraine offers a striking illustration of how gender equality becomes a security issue for Europe. The number of women serving in the armed forces has drastically increased. According to Ukrainian officials, women make up 20% of the armed forces, or about 100,000 women. Furthermore, women’s organisations were among the first to provide humanitarian aid.

For instance, Lyudmyla Yankina, a prominent human rights activist, organised the delivery of 25 tonnes of sand to protect the Kyiv blood donation centre in March 2022.

Tetiana Rubanka, a humanitarian deminer, began her career to support Ukraine’s recovery – “What seems ‘not a woman’s job’ may turn out to be your mission. We are strong. We can do it all!”

One of  Ukrainian servicewomen – “On 24 February, I was in a military enlistment office at 8am, but there were so many people in the queue that I didn’t manage on the first day. First of all, it was an impulse. I didn’t want Kyiv to suffer the same fate as my hometown, Donetsk.”

And they are not the only ones eager to act: thousands of women in Ukraine fight every day, though not necessarily alongside men on the frontline. Each Ukrainian woman contributes to the safety of her family and country in general: my mum is a doctor, and every day she faces situations where her decisions directly affect human lives. Even though she is not fighting on the battlefront, she experiences a battlefront in our native town of Chernivtsi. She treats military personnel and provides aid with all her strength. Like her, each female doctor believes her true mission is to save and cure.

Hence, I am confident to argue that gender equality is a pillar of peace and security. When women and men govern together, Europe’s security becomes stronger, since true security lies not only in defence, but also in building a secure future for everyone together.

Eventually, a system that consistently excludes half of its population is not secure – it is structurally fragile.

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So, do you still think that 8 March is the day of tenderness?