Ukrainian women on the "frontline" between NATO and Russia : An analysis of the competing discourses of gender security

Drawing on poststructuralist sensitivity for discourse and postcolonial feminism, this thesis unpacks the current war in Ukraine as ideological gender security conflict between East and West. An analysis of the wider Women, Peace and Security (WPS) discourse between NATO and Russia from 2020 to 2024 deconstructs how both sides delineate their security spaces through their gender-specific security policies for Ukrainian women. The hybrid metaphor of the Ukrainian woman makes it possible to move beyond the Western-centric boundaries in Feminist Security Studies to create a discursive encounter between NATO and Russia. NATO and Russia construct the Other not only as an aggressor against Ukrainian women, but primarily as an aggressor against their Self-image as a gender alliance or patriarchal protector. Consequently, their gender security priorities and spatial signifiers towards Ukrainian women try to maintain far-reaching distance to the other security space. However, these boundaries remain a contradictory intersection between Eastern and Western visions of women, peace and security. This thesis therefore shows that it is simply not enough to strengthen gender security within orthodox security spaces, even if they compete with Western ideologies of gender and race. Gender security must be extended to the margins in-between.