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is required. Having a friend who knows someone in the right place
can mean the difference between success and failure. Such
friendships are often based on old school ties or other shared
experiences.
Visitors with Ukrainian friends will not go hungry or thirsty.
Limited resources will be shared, and visitors presented with small
gifts of homemade preserves to sweeten their lives, home brews to
raise their spirits, herbal teas to ward off colds, and pickled
vegetables to tickle their palates. Ukrainians will not expect
anything in return for their hospitality or the gifts they give, but if
given a gift, they will present one in return. “In no place in the
world,” related one American, “have I made loyal and long-
standing friendships so quickly as in Ukraine.” (p.281)

3. ”Women have a strong image in the matriarchal Ukrainian
culture… Sexual roles are less strictly defined than in many other
Eastern countries and, in contrast to Russians, authority in the
Ukrainian home is shared by husband and wife. Historically,
Ukrainian women have worked side by side with their men…
Today women keep busy running households, raising children,
standing in lines,… caring for their men, and work at jobs and
professions. Men have more authority, though, and older men even
more so; but women are recognized as the glue that holds the male-
chauvinist society together. Feminism is a nonissue. Certain
professions are understood to be meant for women (such as
medical doctors) and others for men, but Ukrainian women seem
comfortable with such gender divisions. American women who
have worked in Ukraine say that Ukrainian women put up with
much less and stand up to men much more than do Russian
women.” (pp.281-282).

4. ”In the workplace, Ukrainians tend to be passive, without much
motivation or initiative, reacting to others instead of presenting
their own views… The command system has produced a people
who rely on inner resources and are constantly on the defensive
against the outer world which they regard as dangerous. A question
will be answered with a question rather than a straight answer.
Don’t stick your neck out, stand to the side, like the house in the
Ukrainian proverb (My house stands to the side – I don’t know
anything)”. (p.283).

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