Formation of the organizational and legal mechanism for ensuring gender equality in the pharmaceutical sector of the healthcare system of Ukraine

In the context of reforming the healthcare system of Ukraine, it is particularly important to modernize gender-sensitive personnel policies, which are part of the socially responsible management paradigm. The pharmaceutical industry in Ukraine is highly feminized, but there are still barriers to protecting women’s labor rights, ensuring equal access to managerial decision-making, fair remuneration, opportunities for professional growth and a balanced distribution of working hours and rest. This determines the urgency of the problem and the need for its thorough scientific understanding. Aim. To substantiate the need to form an organizational and legal mechanism for ensuring gender equality in the pharmaceutical sector of Ukraine, taking into account the national legislation, international experience and current challenges related to the transformation of the healthcare system under martial law. Materials and methods. The research materials were normative legal acts in the field of healthcare and pharmacy, scientific publications by domestic and foreign authors, non-financial reports of leading global pharmaceutical companies, as well as information resources from the official websites of public professional associations. The following methods were used in the course of the work: the content analysis of regulatory and legal acts, scientific publications and non-financial reports, a systematic approach, a structural-logical method, methods of comparison and generalization, as well as a graphical method for visualizing the research results. Results and discussion. It has been found that despite the existence of legislative guarantees of gender equality, Ukraine lacks a systemic mechanism for implementing a gender-sensitive approach in the management of pharmaceutical organizations. The experience of leading pharmaceutical companies, including practices of gender-sensitive human resource policies, mentoring programs, and initiatives to reduce the gender pay gap, has been summarized. Based on the systematization of the data, a multi-level model for implementing gender equality principles at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels has been proposed. Conclusions. The results of the analysis confirm the prospect of forming a comprehensive organizational and legal mechanism for ensuring gender equality as a necessary condition for the sustainable development of the pharmaceutical sector in Ukraine. The integration of the gender approach will contribute to improving the efficiency, innovation and sustainability of the industry in the context of the European integration and post-war reconstruction. The multi-level model proposed for implementing the gender policy – at the macro, meso and micro levels – is of great practical importance as it provides a comprehensive approach to eliminating gender disparities, strengthening human resources and institutional capacity of pharmaceutical organizations.