Ukrainian women on the front line| did you know that International Women's Day stems from the bravery of Ukrainian women?

One day I had dinner with friends, talked about the news, talked about the media, and talked about what I saw in the community in recent days, mostly the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The faces of mothers and children who were crying and frightened appeared on the screen of their mobile phones, and everyone shook their heads and said in unison, "So pitiful." Seeing the news of the Ukrainian men who needed to stay and fight, everyone said tacitly, "They don't have a choice."

Photo| Tatsushi Images/Associated Press

One of the friends suddenly said, "It's good to be a girl, you don't need to fight."

For the mother to flee with her children, for all the men need to stay, it is mostly painful and helpless. But is it really "good" to be a woman and leave alone with her children in the Russo-Ukrainian War?

That night, I turned on my laptop and Googled the words "Ukrainian women" and was greeted by them who "needed to flee."

After the war between Russia and Ukraine began, most of the news headlines or pictures related to Ukrainian women were women with children, desperately trying to get out of the turbulent land; or the media saw deepening gender inequality, and wrote for them out of goodwill, but inadvertently put women in a position that needed to be defended again.

But can they only do it to escape? And only by staying on the front line with a gun can we defend our country?

(Recommended reading: Mindy Express| under Russian aggression, ukraine really only has to retreat? You don't know about Russian information warfare)

Is it only on the front line that it is considered to be on the battlefield?

Retrospectively, the role of women in the war began with the "replacement of the male vacancy".

When men became soldiers, they began to move from family to workplace, in order to fill the "male vacancy" and give them the strength to push female suffrage around the world after the war _[1].

Coming to the Second World War, they can play more roles at this moment. In addition to the traditional caregiver tasks, raising funds for the country, etc., they also began to put on their suits and go to the battlefield, but on the battlefield, they still belonged to the logistical support role _[1].

Photo| Tatsushi Images/Associated Press

We celebrate the so-called heroic gestures of women with guns, such as some women learning to pull the trigger with a gun before the war began_[2], while another group of women who have been working and living abroad for many years chose to return to Ukraine to rescue them at this time_[3].

It seems that only by rushing to the front line can we defend our family and defend the country, and only then can we be considered worthy of praise. Is it only on the front line that is the battlefield?

In fact, the battlefield is happening in more places than you can imagine, and in these places, there are female figures.

Ukrainian women: We have our own battlefield, we have our own way of defending what we love

There are many ways to defend the homeland, and it should not be restricted by carrying guns to the front. Choosing monetary support, choosing to give refugees shelter, choosing companionship from beginning to end, are all ways women in Ukraine or around the world have defended their homes in the past few weeks.

For example, Ukraine's First Lady, Olena Zelenska, called on First Ladies across Europe to assist at the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, and the ensuing aid, such as providing shelter for refugees, was a courageous act that did not fear hegemony.

Photo| Tatsushi Images/Associated Press

There are ukrainian nannies and nurses who have not fled and are guarding the newborn surrogate babies, their battlefields are in the basement of the capital Kiev, and there are Ukrainian mothers who accompany the evacuation of their cancer-sick children, listening to the explosions in panic in ambulances, and their battlefields are on the devastated evacuation road.

And the sacrifices of those who went out to get medicine for their mothers and brought food for stray animals, they did not pull the trigger with a gun, but they also used the last breath of their lives to guard everything precious.

There are also journalists and photographers who have come to Ukraine to connect the world, such as journalist Clarissa Ward and war photographer Lynsey Addario, who hold microphones and cameras to focus on delivering the right first-hand message to you and me in front of the TV, whose battlefield is about the accuracy of guarding the news.

They are also guarding the last line of defense in their respective battlefields.

Let's try to imagine what this war would look like if only the soldiers with guns on the front line were left in this war, without the above-mentioned them. If they don't exist, who can take their place? And at this time, will you and I still say "it's good to be a girl, you don't need to fight"?

(Same scene plus: [Gender Observation] 6,000 people supported, why don't women have to be soldiers? ）

Breaking down prejudices: Ukrainian women define their positioning in the war

Do you know? Celebrated annually on March 8, International Women's Day began with The Ukrainian feminist Clara Lemlich, who immigrated to the United States, led 15,000 women in garment factories to the streets of the United States in 1908 to fight for better pay and humane working hours and work conditions for female employees_.[4]

Clara, who was 22 years old at the time, could not tolerate an exploitative working environment, and after being violently attacked by the police again and again, she stood up again and again to change _{the culture of} American industry with a "20,000 uprising".

To celebrate their bravery, the United States launched National Women's Day on February 28, 1909_,[4] which gradually became what you and I are familiar with today as International Women's Day.

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The theme of this year's International Women's Day is "Breaking Prejudice" (#BreakTheBias), which is about breaking down gender prejudice and discrimination.

Can we also extend this theme to the war-torn Ukraine, look at them in different corners and in different ways to defend the country, and then flip their own expectations for gender: the so-called gender equality, should not be men and women should do the same thing to rush to the front, not everyone must pick up guns, called heroic.

This year, can we break these unrealistic "gender equality" expectations?

Those who protect their babies in the basement, those who evacuate with their children, those who choose to accompany and protect them even if they are scared in the fierce bombardment, these braveries are also worthy of praise.