ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an in-depth look at Ukraine's nation-state building and economic transformations since Ukraine's independence, as well as the resulting double marginalization of middle-aged women that is the genesis of exile and exodus. It explains the emigration context in Ukraine where the three rings of the nation-state are all in dramatic flux even as processes of nation-state building attempt to fuse them together. It discusses the rise of neofamilialism in post-colonial Ukraine embodied in the rise of Berehynia, a symbol of ethnically pure, family-centered, Ukrainian womanhood. Finally, the chapter describes the intersections of markets, moralities, and motherhood in the experiences of three individuals located in Ukraine, but who are also part of the transnational social fields of exile and exodus. Markets, moralities, and motherhood are bundled together in Ukraine's nation-state building process. The consensus in the region is that women have been "too empowered" by Soviet policies, and that they occurred at the expense of men.
