One of the accommodations that Ukraine must make - and soon - as it travels the road toward acceptance as a European state, is a serious effort to reform its outdated and inadequate employment laws.
But laws alone will never be enough. Without a workable enforcement mechanism and the will to enforce the laws, any change will be mere window dressing.
Some Americans can remember, perhaps vaguely, when a newspaper's classified advertising section carried categories including "Help Wanted - M" and "Help Wanted - F." Recruiting employees based on gender went out in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as states adopted anti-discrimination laws in the wake of the civil rights movement.
Europe and, in fact, most of the world has followed suit. Employers today are largely prohibited from specifying that they want male or female applicants unless the employee's gender constitutes a bona fide occupational qualification. In the U.S., employers are cautioned not to ask applicants about their marital status, family situation or age lest they give rejected candidates a basis for a discrimination complaint. Almost nobody attaches a photograph to a resume anymore.
That's there. Here, things are different.
Last summer, the international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch blasted the Ukrainian government in a 52-page report, charging that it was complicit in widespread employer discrimination against women, who it claimed were being excluded from a tight job market. The organization noted that public and private sector employers regularly specified gender, age and appearance requirements in employment ads, and used information on a woman's family circumstances to determine her desirability as an employee.
LaShawn Jefferson, executive director of the group's Women's Rights Division, said that Ukraine's government "routinely denies" that gender discrimination is a problem. Almost on cue, the Labor Ministry denied the group's allegations, citing statistics that showed that the unemployment rate for women is lower than for men.
Ukraine's Constitution guarantees equal rights to men and women, and, as in other nations, employment discrimination is unlawful. That prohibition hasn't had a big impact on the way employers look for workers, though.
Most employers and personnel agencies know that what they're doing is illegal, leading to comments on the issue that are downright disingenuous.
One "employment expert" told a local newspaper that advertisements requesting applications from "attractive woman under age 25" are only intended to give job-hunters an idea of what kind of person the employer has in mind. It doesn't imply that applicants with other attributes would be excluded, the expert opined.
That argument is wholly unpersuasive. The boss who asks for an attractive, single female assistant under age 25 who is free to travel with him isn't likely to have much patience with a personnel officer who presents him with a 35 year-old married male candidate, whatever his qualifications.
Perhaps the only people worried about the effect of Ukraine's pattern of employment discrimination are non-Ukrainians. Job seekers can't be faulted for using everything at their disposal in the effort to land a job.
A glossy magazine, Cadre, caters to those folks. The publication is solely comprised of pictorial ads that place as much emphasis on looks as on qualifications. For about $7, the unemployed and underemployed can buy a listing that includes a photograph and a brief description of the applicant, including age, education, interests and salary expectations. The best-looking advertisers are featured on the magazine's cover, which looks more like an ad for a dating service than an employment publication.
As in other areas, the nation has laws on the books that govern employment issues. For those laws to have teeth, however, the government must take an active interest in enforcement. That requires both funding and will, both of which are in short supply. And it presupposes a legal system that is both independent and financially stable enough to adjudicate such cases.
And with European integration high on the president's agenda and that of the major opposition forces, there is no better time to start than now.
Scott Lewis is managing editor of the Ukrainian Observer.
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