Ukraine To Give Female Soldiers ‘More Comfortable’ Heels. Well, It’s Still Sexist

Sometimes when we react to situations without fully realising the extent of it, it can be a bit problematic. Or in the case of Ukraine, deeply problematic and wholly sexist. This is because of Ukraine’s decision to give women soldiers heels to wear for the parade on the 24th of August. The decision caused a lot of famous celebrities to come out and talk about the sexist nature of the announcement. And you would think that it’s bad and because of the outrage, that the country would back down from sexualising their women soldiers. Turns out, nope. 

Instead of completely doing away with heels for a parade (read about their original plan here)  Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence on Wednesday spoke about it stating that they aren’t going to scrape the heels completely but instead are going to make “a new model of footwear.”

As per Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, it said that the new shoes will be having “lacing that will better hold the shoes while walking,” and “lower and more comfortable.” They also added that “have a positive experience when testing this model” then it can be upgraded to ceremonial uniform for all the female soldiers in the military.

We don’t get it. there are so many, many problems with this. First of all, it’s sexist and then it’s a bigger problem that the ministry doesn’t see a problem with it. We’re not sure why the women of the country are not up in arms (pun intended) but we’re sure there are women in the country that realise how stupid and sexist this entire move it. Not to mention, it takes away from the seriousness of the job these women perform.

We think such deeply sexist agenda should be called out and talked about on global platforms. There are 57,000 women working in the Ukranian army and this heels controversy needs a serious rework.