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kilkennyobserver.ie
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 06 May 2022
News Opinion
The Fact Of The Matter PAUL HOPKINS
Women with their rifles under their ruffles Three months into the pandemic I interviewed the globally-renowned photographer Kim Haughton for the Sunday Independent. During a wideranging interview from Washington DC, where — masked up and sturdy Nikon to hand — she was covering the #blacklivesmatter protests, the Dublin native told me she would wish to have photographed Countess Markievicz. “That idea of her in petticoats but with her rifle under the ruffles appeals. She’s at once feminine and then not feminine,” said Haughton. Women have played many roles in warfare down the centuries, from keeping the home fires burning to supporting the military with domestic back-up to taking up nursing roles near the frontlines of the Crimean War and the trenches of WW1. It was WW2 that saw the role of women expand, with millions working to supply the militaries on all sides with the weapons of war. I had two Irish aunts
who joined the Wrens, Britain’s women’s naval service, as did many young Irish women. Markievicz aside, women’s contribution here in 1919 was in setting up Cumann na mBan branches, providing safe houses and distributing money from the White Cross. They procured and smuggled arms. They were spies, too, described as “the eyes and ears” of the conflict. Ukraine offers a unique insight into the roles women play in defending a nation and as leaders in their own right. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have taken up arms during the war sparked by Russia’s invasion. Women constitute as much as 15% to 17% of the Ukrainian fighting force. In the first two weeks of the conflict, social media was replete with images of women training for combat. Ukrainian women have historically shown strength, bolstered by enjoying an independence not common in other parts of the world. One
reason for this is, actually, the country’s geography. A temperate climate and fertile land has combined to enable independence for hardworking people. Fathers didn’t need to trade their daughters for a dowry to plough the land, nor were they indebted serfs to wealthy landowners. A widow could remain unmarried if she chose to and thrive by cultivating her garden and tending to her animals. In Ukrainian folklore, there is a recurrent character of a single woman, often a widow, who can survive and thrive without a man. Since the war began, the Ukrainian Government has been highlighting the country’s tradition of women’s empowerment. However, their representation at government level could be a lot better and, no doubt, the life of many Ukrainian women has been no fairytale, given the history of Soviet domination and the ongoing conflict since 2014 and, indeed, further back.
A mindful workplace is a successful workplace ANDREW MCDONALD HYPNOTHERAPIST
Mindfulness makes the workplace a more productive environment for both employees and employers. Once simply a Buddhist practice firmly rooted in the East, mindfulness has seen a popularity boom in the Western world. Yet, it is something which is still frequently misunderstood. Neither weird nor wonderful, mindfulness is beautiful in its simplicity. All it means is being aware of what is going on both in the external and internal world. In other words, awareness of occurrences within, and outside the practitioner’s body. The first benefit to the workplace is an increase in focus. Places of employment are, by nature, busy. With so much going on, it is easy to get distracted. Concentration quickly becomes very difficult. In fact, despite being an overly used buzzword, there is good evidence that multitasking is impossible for human beings. Workers are almost
expected to do what they cannot by nature. No wonder then, that, with mindfulness training, employees score higher in tests on readingcomprehension, working memory capacity and ability to reduce the frequency of distracting thoughts. A focused worker is a healthier, less stressed, and more efficient worker. Not only is this advantageous for the employee, but the employer benefits from a more productive workforce. Potentially, it also cuts down on sick leave, too. Productivity increases and burnout reduces. A study conducted in a chemical factory in America demonstrated that a mindfulness programme led directly to a $22,000 saving per employee for the company. As a direct result of being less stressed, mindfulness practitioners become more helpful. A study carried out by five leading international education institutions found that employees who are mindful are more willing to spend time helping colleagues. Again, the plus points for both workers and bosses are obvious. Communication also improves dramatically. When a boss is mindful, it signals humility, compassion, and
authenticity to staff. A manager becomes a team player. A leader, yes. A dictator, no. By being more approachable, heads of companies encourage their employees to engage both with them, and with each other in a more honest and productive manner. This also filters down through an organisation’s hierarchy. It seems almost silly to point out that teams comprised of helpful, more communicative co-workers encounter less conflict. Workplace arguments and power politics demotivate staff, leading to them being less efficient, and cost employers serious time and money in bringing resolution. Furthermore, it causes another headache for bosses through high turnover. Whilst it is, in reality, easy to understand, it does take time to build mindfulness as a habit. You simply cannot go from near zero to fully aware overnight. All this means, however, is regularly taking a couple of minutes to be mindful and increase that time, and the frequency of those periods, over weeks and months. Don’t be hard on yourself if you struggle at first, you’ll get there. And when you do, your workplace will be transformed!
Since the start of this invasion, several remarkable videos have shown Ukrainian women opposing armed Russian soldiers. One woman was famously shown offering sunflower seeds to the troops, instructing them to “at least put these seeds in your pockets, so sunflowers will grow when you all die here”. Another showed a woman yelling at a heavily armed Russian soldier atop his tank in Konotop: “Don’t you know where you are? You’re in Konotop. Every other woman here is a witch. You’ll never get an erection, starting tomorrow.” Ukrainian women not already in the armed forces or confronting Russian soldiers with sharp tongues have been volunteering on the frontlines. This practice traces its roots to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, when volunteers created a de facto second State while the official State failed, crippled by Russian-led corruption and cronyism. In 2014, female volunteers
delivered meals, clothes and fuel to the men who defended Maidan – Kyiv’s Independence Square, which became the stage for months-long protests against riot police and proRussian mercenaries. Volunteers supplied hospitals and ambulances with medicines; they assembled rapid-response defence teams to shield locations where attacks were imminent; and they made camouflage nets and hid the wounded from persecution. In 2022, some of the same Ukrainian women have stepped into what are now familiar roles, working day and night to address the needs of the army and of the volunteer forces, stranded civilians, the disabled and elderly, medical practitioners and even abandoned pets. Grandmothers are using their sewing machines to make flak jackets and military uniforms. A joke on Ukrainian social media is: “If you tell Ukrainian volunteers that a nuclear warhead is needed, it will take them about
two hours to put one together and deliver it to the specified address. Along with tea and biscuits.” While not every volunteer in Ukraine is a woman, reportedly they do form the majority of the volunteer force. As with the Kurdish women known as the ‘Daughters of Kobani’ who fought in Syria and Iraq, there are powerful psychological effects when women take up arms. Soldiers who perceive they could lose against women might feel emasculated, which was the effect of YPJ, the Women’s Protection Units of the Syrian Democratic Forces, on Isis fighters in 2014-2016. Like those women, Ukrainian women now have rose to the occasion. They are courageous and deadly effective. Behind every successful man is a woman goes the old adage. This war shows that, perhaps, behind the relative success of the Ukrainian army is an army of Ukrainian women.
