THE FIGURE OF WOMEN IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL WARS AND CRISES: A SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The article provides a socio-philosophical analysis of the transformation of female subjectivity in the context of global wars and extreme crisis states of the 20th–21st centuries. The relevance of the study lies in the need to rethink traditional androcentric narratives in the security discourse, which marginalize women’s roles, limiting their image to that of victims of conflict or passive observers. The work aims to deconstruct patriarchal monopolies on war and identify mechanisms for the formation of a new female agency. The article is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines philosophical, sociological, historical, political, and cultural aspects. The methods of critical gender analysis, case studies, and deconstruction of mythological archetypes were used, which allowed the integration of philosophical concepts, in particular the concept of biopolitics by M. Foucault, into the modern discourse on war, violence, and social stability. War is not only a form of armed confrontation, but also a destructive catalyst that destroys the binary oppositions of male and female. The dialectical tension between two vectors of female experience was revealed: the female body as an object of biopolitical control (systematic violence, reproductive restrictions, genocidal practices) and female agency as a strategic response to the challenges of modernity. It was investigated that the participation of women in combat, management and peacemaking processes, in particular, using the examples of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the experience of Israel, Norway, Kurdistan, is not an episodic phenomenon, but an integral part of the survival strategy of society. It has been proven that patriarchal models of legitimization of violence are reinforced by archaic cultural codes, such as the archetypes of the kidnapped Europe or Medusa the Gorgon, which contribute to the stigmatization of victims and the exclusion of women from the space of security decision-making. Modern female subjectivity in times of crisis is an independent strategic resource capable of radically transforming the architecture of global security. The transition to a more inclusive world order requires not only institutional reforms. A fundamental deconstruction of cultural codes that justify the instrumentalization of the female body is necessary. Ukraine’s War of Independence became the rubicon where a radical social subjectivization of Ukrainian women takes place, transforming the experience of trauma and forced mobility into effective agency. Thus, the recognition of female subjectivity as an integral element of a stable world order is a necessary condition for overcoming cycles of violence and ensuring long-term social stability and harmonious development of society.