About event
In the 19th century, education became a powerful lever for women’s self-realization, moving beyond the family circle and offering a way to manifest their skills and talents. Women began to acquire a new social status: high school students (himnazystky), female course attendees (kursystky), and ultimately—professionals in their fields. A new term emerged to characterize them: the "NEW WOMAN."
In the Kosach family, a prime example of such a woman was Olha Petrivna, better known by her pseudonym OLENA PCHILKA. Together with her husband, she not only built a model family based on a partnership and raised six children, but she also excelled as a writer, publisher, public figure, and ethnographic researcher, eventually becoming a member of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
Her daughters—Larysa (Lesya Ukrainka), Olha, Oksana, and Izydora—also became examples of emancipated women. Lesya Ukrainka addressed the "woman question" not only in her literary works but also in her journalism. Her sisters received higher professional education: Olha became a physician, Oksana a French teacher and translator, and Izydora an agronomist. Olena Pchilka’s daughter-in-law, Oleksandra—having earned degrees in philology and law—also realized her literary talent under the pseudonym Hrytsko Hryhorenko.
The exhibition "The Emancipants" features personal belongings of these women, as well as diplomas and certificates from women's educational institutions. Visitors will be able to visualize the image of a typical kursystka (a student of Higher Women's Courses) through a painting by M. Yaroshenko.
A separate section of the exposition consists of materials from the private collection of Petro Yakovenko, rescued from the Museum of Education in the occupied city of Horlivka (Donetsk region).
