On December 1, 2025, during the General Assembly of the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women’s History, Tetiana Isaieva, the founder of the Museum of Women’s and Gender History, was unanimously elected Honorary Member of UARWH and presented with the Award for Dedicated Work in Promoting Women’s History.
Tetiana Isaieva is the founder and director of the Museum of Women’s and Gender History in Kharkiv, Chair of the Board of the NGO «Centre of Gender Culture», an expert and trainer in gender policy and education, and one of the most prominent activists and leaders of the contemporary women’s movement in Ukraine. Her name is associated with the launch of important initiatives and the development of numerous projects dedicated to promoting the history of the women’s movement in Ukraine and beyond.
Alla Shvets delivered the nomination speech. During the discussion, UARWH members expressed sincere admiration, profound gratitude, and deep respect for Tetiana Isaieva for her personal leadership, enormous contribution, and incredible dedication to preserving and disseminating knowledge about women’s past.
Her contribution to the preservation and promotion of women’s and gender history is truly exceptional. In 2008, on Tetiana Isaieva’s initiative, the unique, first, and to this day only Museum of Women’s and Gender History in Ukraine was established — the Gendermuseum, whose collection comprises over 4,000 exhibits.
It is important to emphasize that to create this space, Tetiana selflessly gave up her own apartment, transforming the museum into an institution of memory, education, and public history of the women’s and feminist movement. Thanks to her wide-ranging activities, the Museum has become not only a repository of artifacts but also a center of intellectual and civic life, where discussions on women’s experiences, gender equality, and women’s rights take place, and new approaches to researching and representing women’s history are developed.
As the long-standing Chair of the NGO «Centre of Gender Culture», Tetiana Isaieva has built a powerful women’s network, uniting around the idea of women’s history a significant number of civil society organizations not only in the Kharkiv region but across Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Since 2020, the Centre of Gender Culture has served as an inter-regional hub providing support to women’s organizations in Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Kharkiv regions in strengthening their organizational capacity and enhancing women’s influence on decision-making across various spheres of public life. This work directly contributes to women’s empowerment, fostering a new generation of women leaders, and supporting communities engaged with women’s and gender history.
Under Tetiana Isaieva’s leadership and initiative, several landmark projects of lasting significance have been carried out, including:
- Virtual exhibitions on women’s history, notably “The Truth About March 8th” (2011);
- a symbolic tailor’s ribbon marking key milestones of Ukrainian women’s history;
- the exhibition “Outstanding Women of Kharkiv”, for which the Centre of Gender Culture prepared profiles of 28 women from Kharkiv;
- the exhibition “365 Women’s Stories of Kharkiv” (2019);
- the painting exhibition “Incredible”, dedicated to remarkable women and their contributions to history and culture;
- a feminist calendar promoting key figures, dates, and events of the women’s movement;
- the project “HerTalks: Women Creators of Ukrainian Reality” (2024–2025, online) — dozens of original lectures on women’s figures and events of the Ukrainian women’s movement;
- the video series “140 Years of Manifestation” about various milestones of the Ukrainian women’s movement;
- and the development and presentation of the educational game about outstanding Ukrainian women, “The Second Wreath”.
These initiatives create a vivid, dynamic, and multifaceted vision of women’s history, making it accessible and engaging for diverse generations and audiences.
Under Tetiana Isaieva’s leadership, in 2023, the Museum of Women’s and Gender History launched a large-scale awareness campaign marking the 140th anniversary of the Ukrainian women’s movement, which helped bring the history of the Ukrainian women’s movement into broader public and international discourse. As part of this campaign, a number of important educational, artistic, and public events of national and international significance took place in 2024, including:
- an international conference marking the 170th anniversary of Nataliia Kobrynska,
- the Women’s Movement Forum in Vienna,
- and presentations of the exhibition “Incredible” in various European countries.
All these achievements and projects are of great importance for shaping cultural memory, advancing feminist discourse, and strengthening gender equality in Ukraine. Thanks to Tetiana Isaieva’s initiatives, the Ukrainian women’s movement and its history are gaining ever greater visibility and recognition beyond Ukraine, and Ukrainian research in women’s history is becoming integrated into the European and global context.
In recognition of her initiation and development of numerous projects aimed at researching, promoting, and rethinking the history of the Ukrainian women’s movement, her significant contribution to shaping feminist discourse and strengthening women’s communities in Ukraine and beyond, it is proposed that Tetiana Isaieva be awarded the title of Honorary Member of UARWH. This decision is fully justified, well-deserved, and consistent with the mission, values, and objectives of the Association.
(Nomination prepared by Alla Shvets)
Watch the documentary about Tetiana Isaieva from the series “Feministka,” produced by the NGO “ZhyvaIA.” Read Tamara Martseniuk’s interview with Tetiana Isaieva about feminist educational activities and women’s museums on the platform “Gender in Detail.”