The article is devoted to the urgent problem of introducing gender perspectives into military professional activities in Ukraine. The author did this through the prism of analysing gender approaches and gender competence.

The purpose of the article is to define the essence of these approaches and their place and methods in the training of security and defence sector professionals.

The methods used to achieve this goal are theoretical analysis of sources, synthesis, comparison, observation, and generalisation. The scientific novelty of the article is the definition of the hierarchy and limits of the application of gender approaches in military professional activities, systematisation of the introduction of gender competence in educational and training programmes at all levels. The practical significance of the study is to determine the place of gender competence, its formation and development in military education.

Prospects for further research are to study the theory and experience of gender competence formation in gender advisers in the security and defence sector as agents of change to ensure gender equality.

Key words: gender approaches, gender perspective, gender competence, educational programmes, concentration of programmes, formation and development of gender competence.

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