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WOMEN MPs BEAT MEN MPs 4:1 AS MORE EFFICIENT IN THEIR WORK THIS YEAR
Four-criteria assessment showed that women MPs were more efficient this year than their men-colleagues. According to analysis results received by Civil Network OPORA, women MPs gave more speeches, submitted more bills, showed better attendance, and took part in voting process more responsibly than men.
Сurrent convocation of Ukrainian Parliament has the largest number of women for the whole history of independent Ukraine – 50, what is 12.01% of the total number of MPs. We would like to remind that there were only 13 women in the first convocation of Ukrainian Parliament (2.73%), and this number has been increasing in each election and reaching 9.9% in VII convocation. In 1994, the number of women elected in single-member districts was the highest – 19 persons, while the number of women MPs who get into the Parliament through party lists has never been below 20 (in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2012), and even reached 41 and 42 in 2006 and 2007.
Only two of 50 current women MPs were elected in single-member districts – Oksana Yurynets from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Iryna Podoliak from the Samopomich, both elected in Lviv oblast.
As of the end of 2015 November, Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction has the largest number of women MPs (16). People's Front has 12 women MPs, and Samopomich – 8, Batkivshchyna faction – 5, Opposition Bloc – 3, Radical Party of Oleh Liashko – 3. Non-faction MPs Hanna Hopko, Oksana Syroid and Iryna Suslova all got into the Parliament through party list of the Samopomich. In general, Samopomich has lost its 4 women MPs if compared to the beginning of 2015. As OPORA has already mentioned, women have been more active than men from the very beginning of their work. Moreover, according to the yearly assessment of parliamentary activities, they are still more active in law-making then men.
Lovochkina missed the biggest number of plenary sittings among other women MPs.
Firstly, women MPs visit plenary sittings more often than men MPs – 83.4% and 78.9% attendance respectively, according to written registration data. Political prisoner Nadiia Savcehnko, elected under Batkivshchyna party list, didn't attend sittings due to objective reason. At the same time, MP Yuliia Lovochkina from the Opposition Bloc was present only on 38% of sittings. Two women MPs, Olena Boiko from the People's Front and Nataliia Novak from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, didn't miss any sitting.
Attendance of women MPs for the year of work in the Parliament
| Faction | Name | attendance, % |
| PF | Boiko Olena Petrivna | 100% |
| PPB | Novak Nataliia Vasylivna | 100% |
| PF | Voitsekhovska Svitlana Mykhailivna | 98% |
| PF | Yefremova Iryna Oleksiivna | 98% |
| PPB | Chervakova Olha Valeriivna | 98% |
| Samopomich | Romanova Anna Anatoliivna | 97% |
| Non-faction | Ptashnyk Viktoriia Yuriivna | 97% |
| PF | Denisova Liudmyla Leontiivna | 95% |
| Non-faction | Hopko Hanna Mykolaivna | 94% |
| RP | Koshelieva Alona Volodymyrivna | 94% |
| PPB | Matuzko Olena Oleksandrivna | 93% |
| PPB | Yuzhanina Nina Petrivna | 93% |
| Samopomich | Babak Alona Valeriivna | 91% |
| Samopomich | Podoliak Iryna Ihorivna | 91% |
| PPB | Klympush-Tsyntsadze Ivanna Orestivna | 90% |
| PF | Masorina Olena Serhiivna | 90% |
| PF | Ledovskykh Olena Volodymyrivna | 89% |
| Samopomich | Ostrikova Tetiana Heorhiivna | 89% |
| PF | Katser-Buchkovska Nataliia Volodymyrivna | 87% |
| PPB | Prodan Oksana Petrivna | 87% |
| Samopomich | Voitsitska Viktoriia Mykhailivna | 86% |
| PF | Kolhanova Olena Valeriivna | 86% |
| Non-faction | Syroid Oksana Ivanivna | 86% |
| PPB | Friz Iryna Vasylivna | 86% |
| Batkivshchyna | Kondratiuk Olena Kostiantynivna | 86% |
| PF | Hrynevych Liliia Mykhailivna | 84% |
| Batkivshchyna | Kuzhel Oleksandra Volodymyrivna | 84% |
| RP | Korchynska Oksana Anatoliivna | 84% |
| PPB | Yurynets Oksana Vasylivna | 84% |
| Samopomich | Veselova Nataliia Vasylivna | 83% |
| Non-faction | Suslova Iryna Mykolaivna | 83% |
| PPB | Lutsenko Iryna Stepanivna | 82% |
| Samopomich | Sotnyk Olena Serhiivna | 81% |
| PF | Siumar Viktoriia Petrivna | 81% |
| PPB | Bielkova Olha Valentynivna | 79% |
| PPB | Herashchenko Iryna Volodymyrivna | 79% |
| PPB | Zalishchuk Svitlana Petrivna | 78% |
| Batkivshchyna | Shkrum Alona Ivanivna | 78% |
| PPB | Ionova Mariia Mykolaivna | 77% |
| Batkivshchyna | Tymoshenko Yuliia Volodymyrivna | 75% |
| PF | Chornovol Tetiana Mykolaivna | 75% |
| OB | Korolevska Nataliia Yuriivna | 71% |
| PPB | Bohomolets Olha Vadymivna | 67% |
| PPB | Matios Mariia Vasylivna | 67% |
| OB | Bakhteieva Tetiana Dmytrivna | 66% |
| Samopomich | Sysoienko Iryna Volodymyrivna | 65% |
| PPB | Ahafonova Nataliia Volodymyrivna | 64% |
| PF | Donets Tetiana Anatoliivna | 63% |
| OB | Lovochkina Yuliia Volodymyrivna | 38% |
| Batkivshchyna | Savchenko Nadiia Viktorivna | 0% |
The average number of bills registered by each woman MP is 46.
Women MPs are more active than men not only in regards to attendance, but also in law-making and in giving speeches. Thus, according to OPORA's analysis results, women MPs have registered 2,314 bills over the year (17.45% of the total number of registered bills), gave 1,232 speeches (16.24%) and submitted 524 parliamentary inquiries. Thus, a woman MP has registered 46 bills and gave 24 speeches in average. While a man MP has 30 bills and 17 speeches in average. However, the average number of parliamentary inquiries submitted by a woman MP is smaller compared to men. Thus, a woman MP has prepared 10.5 parliamentary inquiries in average, while man MP – 11.
Besides that, women MPs are more decisive in voting "against". Usually Ukrainian MPs rarely choose to vote "against" or "abstained». Many MPs don't vote neither "for", nor "against", nor "abstained" despite they are registered on a sitting and, therefore, are present in the Parliament.
When the situation has worsened exponentially, VRU Speaker Volodymyr Hroisman has initiated in May 2015 a campaign "Stop the Shirker", called to motivate MPs to fulfill their duties attend plenary sittings and vote on agenda items, stressing that if they don't give their votes "for", "against", or "abstained", they will be considered absent at the session.
Having analyzed voting habits of women MPs over a year of their activities in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, we saw that they are more categorical and explicit in voting on agenda items. Thus, a women MP votes "against" in 7.80 cases in average, while the corresponding percentage for the whole parliament is lower – 2.63%. The situation with MPs who ignore the voting is similar: 50 women MPs ignored the voting in 20.38% of cases, while the overall percentage is 37.25%. The following women MPs ignore votings the most often: Yuliia Liovochkina (63.56% of votings were ignored), Tetiana Bakhteieva (51.12%), and Nataliia Korolevska (50.74%).
To visualize voting habits of MPs, OPORA has created interactive charts. According to the charts, women of all five factions vote "against" the most often: N. Novak, S. Zalishchuk, I. Klympush-Tsyntsadze, O. Prodan, O.Chervakova, O. Yurynets from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, O. Sotnyk, I. Podoliak, V. Voitsitska, A. Romanova from Samopomich, S. Voitsekhovska, N. Katser-Buchkovska, O. Boiko, O. Masorina from the People's Front, O. Korchynska, A. Koshelieva from the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, A. Shkrum, O. Kondratiuk, O. Kuzhel, Yu. Tymoshenko from the Batkivshchyna. However, men in the same factions (besides Samopomich) usually choose to ignore a voting.
Women MPs have proved to be more disciplined and active in law-making than men. They gave more speeches and didn't avoid voting "against". Men have better score only in the number of parliamentary inquiries.
Nadiia Virna, Olena Rybii
Prepared under USAID's Accountability, Responsibility, and Democratic Parliamentary Representation (RADA) Program, supported by the Eastern European Fund