Personnel management strategies should be based on the principles of equality, partnership, parity, openness, harmony, transparency and have a clearly expressed systemic character. In this context, the general level of the institution`s corporate culture is important. Exactly the strategy establishes value guidelines and influences, in particular, the definition of gender roles in the team.

Therefore, the state ensures compliance with the legislation on ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men and combating discrimination in labor relations, provides for equal rights and opportunities for citizens in employment, job promotion, professional development and retraining. Ukraine has ratified the relevant International Labour Organizationт (ILO) Conventions. The Constitution of Ukraine (Articles 24 and 43) establishes that there can be no privileges or restrictions, in particular, on the basis of gender, and the equality of the rights of women and men is ensured by giving women equal opportunities in work and remuneration, creating conditions by the state for full exercise by citizens of the right to work and its guarantee of equal opportunities in choosing a profession and type of work.

According to Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men”, the employer is obliged to:

• to create conditions that would allow women and men to work on an equal basis;
• to provide women and men with the opportunity to combine work with family responsibilities;
• to provide equal pay for women and men with the same qualifications and the same working conditions;
• take measures to create safe working conditions for life and health, as well as to prevent and protect against cases of sexual harassment and other manifestations of gender-based violence.

In order to normalize and optimize labor relations, the General Agreement on the Regulation of Basic Principles and Standards for the Implementation of Social and Economic Policy and Labor Relations in Ukraine for 2019-2021 has been concluded.

The basis for measures in the field of combating discrimination and sexism in the workplace are the Methodological Recommendations for the Inclusion in Collective Agreements of provisions ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in labor relations (adopted by Order of the Ministry of Social Policy No. 56 as of January 29, 2020).

The document provides for the provision of a unified methodological approach to the inclusion of provisions in collective agreements on the creation of working conditions that would allow women and men to work on an equal basis, ensure their actual equality in the workplace, and eliminate discrimination based on gender. The Guidelines describe typical examples of gender discrimination based on multiple grounds (gender, age, marital status, disability, etc.). However, the concept of “sexism” is clearly defined.

According to Article 17 of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men”, it will be appropriate to integrate gender-sensitive initiatives into the personnel management strategy, such as:

• determination of an authorized person (coordinator) in matters of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, preventing and combating gender-based violence (at the level of one of the deputy ministers, deputy heads of other executive authorities);
• appointment of advisors on ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men, prevention and countering of gender-based violence;
• formation of consultative and advisory bodies on ensuring equal rights and opportunities of women and men, preventing and countering gender-based violence;
• staffing and promotion of employees in compliance with the principle of giving preference to the person of the gender in relation to which there is an imbalance;
• elimination of inequality in the remuneration of women and men on the basis of the general social norm of remuneration in budgetary and other spheres, as well as on the basis of professional training (retraining) of personnel;
• compliance with the principle of gender parity in representation to ensure the actual equality of women and men and the presence of women at decision-making levels;
• application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, adoption of appropriate work evaluation systems;
• conducting an annual gender audit of the institution;
• ensuring working conditions according to the needs of women and men (toilets, showers, children's rooms, etc.);
• the provision of flexible working hours and the possibility of remote work, which affects the combination of professional activities with family responsibilities;
• carrying out work in the field of combating sexism, various forms of harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying or other forms of aggressive behavior in the workplace;
• annual reporting on combating gender discrimination at general meetings of the labor team and others.

In the context of this, in 2020, the NAСS developed a general short-term training program “Gender Approach in the Human Resources Management in the Civil Service” (NACS Order as of November 25, 2020 No. 219-20), a file with the General short-term training program_2 for civil servants of central executive authorities and representatives of higher education institutions that train masters in the field of “Public Management and Administration”. During 2020-2021, 425 civil servants were trained under the above-mentioned program.

Also in 2021, together with the UN Women's Office in Ukraine, a general short-term training program “Prevention and Counteraction of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace” was developed (NACS Order as of December 03, 2021 No. 185-21) and an online educational course “Prevention and Counteraction of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace” was launched for civil servants and local self-government officials. The course is posted on the online educational platform of the Ukrainian School of Government.

At the same time, in 2021, with the assistance of the Educational and Scientific Center of Applied Sociology “Socioplus” of the National Technical University “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute named after Igor Sikorsky”, the study “Formation of a Positive Image of a Female Manager in the Civil Service” was conducted in 2021.

Purpose: analysis of the current state of the attitude of various social groups to the balanced representation of women and men in senior positions in the civil service, as well as the identification of gender stereotypes and perceptions of gender discrimination.

More than 24,000 respondents from all over Ukraine took part in the sociological survey as part of the study.

Based on the results of the research, an analytical report was prepared, which is available at http://www.center.gov.ua/biblioteka