Press release by Tetiana Piaskovska

Most likely, the vast majority of those who plan to congratulate women on March 8^th have already bought the gifts. However, our press release may give a hint to those who are still undecided. KIIS has been asking women about what they would like to receive as a gift on March 8 for 10 years already. In addition, we are interested in men's plans and we see that they take into account our tips.

According to the results of the poll, top 6 presents that women want to receive are flowers, care and attention, jewelry, toilet water or perfume, romantic dinner, money. Compared to 2018, the percentage of women who want to receive care and attention as a gift from men has doubled (from 6% to 12%), while the share of those who want a romantic journey as a gift has decreased (from 7% to 5%).

On February 8 – 20, 2019, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion poll. Data were collected from 2042 respondents living in 110 settlements in all oblasts of Ukraine (except for the AR of Crimea) with the method of personal interviewing. The sample was stochastic, 4-staged, and it is representative of the population of Ukraine aged 18 and above.

In Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts survey was conducted only in the territories that are controlled by the government of Ukraine.

The statistical sampling error (with a probability of 0.95 and for a design effect of 1.5) does not exceed: 3.3% — for indexes close to 50%, 2.8% — for indexes close to 25%, 2.0% — for indexes close to 10%, 1.4% — for indexes close to 5%.

What to gift women on March 8?

Male respondents were asked: “What present would you like to gift your beloved woman on March 8 most of all?”

Female respondents were asked: “What present would you like to receive from your beloved man on March 8 most of all?”

The survey revealed that:

• flowersis a desired gift for 23% of women, 32% of men are going to present it;

• 12% of women are not expecting any gifts from men except for care and attention (it was 6% in 2018), but only 6% of men marked this option;

• jewelry is a desired gift for 7% of women, the same share of men is going to present it

• 6%of women would like to receive toilet water, perfume, or cosmetics, and 5% of men plan to gift it (the difference is insignificant);

• romantic dinner is a desired gift for 5% of women, the same share of men plans to give it;

• money is the desired gift to 5% of women, and 7% of men plan to present it;

• 13% of women said that they did not have a person they could expect gifts from (it was 9% a year ago), and 10% of men stated that they had nobody to present gifts to (it was 8% in 2018)

As we see, in general, the desire of women and the plans of men almost coincide, significant differences are observed only in two positions: men give flowers more often than women would like them to (32% men vs. 23% women), but twice as many women expect to receive care and attention than amount of men who plan to give it (12% of women vs. 6% of men).

Comparing the data of the last poll with the answers of the previous years, we see:

Compared to 2018, women are much more interested in receiving care, attention and a good word as a gift (it was 6%, now it is 12%). Also, compared to the last year, somewhat fewer women noted money as a desired gift (it was 5%, now it is 3%). Other significant discrepancies were not revealed.

Men's plans have not changed since 2018, but in 2019, there are slightly fewer men who do not plan to give presents (it was 6%, now it is 2%).

Graph 1. Intentions of men and expectations of women about the gifts on March 8, February 2019 (Gifts on the X-axis are ordered by the decrease of the difference between men's intentions and the expectations of women)

Table 1.

Gifts that are awaited by women and will be gifted by men.

QUESTION FOR MALE RESPONDENTS: What present would you like to gift your beloved woman on March 8 most of all?

QUESTION FOR FEMALE RESPONDENTS: What present would you like to receive from your beloved man on March 8 most of all?