Redefining Roles: How Russia’s War is Transforming Ukrainian Women’s Place in Society

Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has had devastating effects across all facets of society. Beyond the physical damage and destruction to Ukraine’s hard infrastructure, the war has disrupted the lives of millions of Ukrainians, displacing nearly a third of its population and resulting in the casualties of almost 500,000 Ukrainian soldiers and over 40,000 civilians. As in similar past conflicts, the war has also had a significant impact on social norms, particularly concerning women’s role in both the economy and society at large. As the country faces a continuing external threat to its peace, freedom, and sovereignty, women have taken on new responsibilities that challenge traditional expectations of feminine behavior. 

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has disproportionately affected women through increases in the incidence of gender-based violence, family separation and forced relocation, poverty, and the double burden of work and increased care responsibilities at home. Women and children account for approximately 90 percent of the millions of displaced Ukrainians, and 6.7 million women are in need of humanitarian assistance. Ukrainian parliamentarian Mariia Ionova notes that Ukrainian women are “bearing a particularly heavy burden in this war,” as they are increasingly expected to take care of their families amid death and displacement. Casualties among troops widow Ukrainian wives daily—in active conflict areas, the rate of widowhood can be as high as 80 percent leaving women with the responsibility of supporting children and elderly dependents while simultaneously mourning the loss of loved ones. 

At the same time, an estimated 2.4 million Ukrainians—mostly women and girls—are experiencing, or at risk of, gender-based violence. Prosecutors have registered 344 cases of Russian sexual violence toward Ukrainian women since 2022, but hesitancy and fear of reporting such incidents leads many women’s organizations to believe the real number is much higher. Even before the war, gender based violence was a critical issue in Ukraine with approximately 75 percent of Ukrainian women reporting being a victim of violence since the age of 15 and a third of Ukrainian women experiencing physical sexual violence in 2019. Civil society has played an integral role in prompting large-scale action against gender-based discrimination. “I’m Not Afraid to Say” was launched in 2017 with the goal of addressing domestic violence, rape, and sexual harassment. Some progress has been achieved through legislation: the Ukrainian Parliament—the Verkhovna Rada—codified the criminalization of domestic violence and supported the development of shelters, hotlines, and a required registry for sexual offenders in 2019. The Verkhovna Rada also ratified the Istanbul Convention in 2022, ushering in new requirements for the development of laws, policies, and support services to end violence against women.

Desperation to flee the country poses a threat of continued abuse for Ukrainian women and children, and registration processes to track refugees has been inconsistent. Given the scale of dislocation due to the war, female and young Ukrainian refugees are in a state of shock and traumatization, leaving them incredibly vulnerable to further forms of exploitation. Women also face challenges in receiving maternal healthcare: preterm births saw a significant rise and, in the first three months following the full-scale invasion, an estimated 80,000 women in Ukraine were expected to give birth. An estimated 60 percent of preventable maternal deaths occur in fragile settings like Ukraine, and over 12,000 Ukrainian women are expected to require life-saving emergency care. Already, one in five women are likely to develop perinatal mental health disorders—stress and trauma in areas of conflict like Ukraine lead to increased risk of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.   

Despite these challenges, women’s position in Ukrainian society has seen progress in recent years: In 2025, Ukraine ranked 62nd out of 148 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index, a score based on indices including economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. This marked an improvement from their position of 74^th in 2021. The nation continues to fall short of the global average of women in national parliament, but experienced a notable increase of 20 percent between 1990 and 2021. 

Women have emerged as prominent international advocates and volunteers in support of the war effort. Female journalists and non-governmental organization leaders are taking the lead in collecting evidence of war crimes to ensure post-war justice and volunteer to provide humanitarian assistance. Although these positions adhere to traditional gender norms, women have also taken up new roles: Nearly 67,000 women—a fifth of the country’s military—were in the Ukrainian Armed Forces as of January 2024. This increase has doubled the number of women in the military since 2014. Efforts have been taken in response to develop uniforms and body armor to better suit women’s body shapes, and organizations like Arm Women Now advocate for Ukrainian women defenders at the national and international levels. 

In addition to military posts, half of all new businesses in Ukraine are female-driven and women are taking on traditionally male-dominated professions in security, transit, and demining industries. Women opened 50 percent of sole proprietorships in 2024, an increase of eight points since 2021. Female entrepreneurs are also more likely to hire other women, promoting a positive feedback cycle in female participation in the labor force. An analysis of CSIS’ Smart Women Smart Power podcasts identified women’s participation in the economy as key to mitigating organizational blind spots, not only in times of war, but also in terms of national resilience and conflict prevention. 

These newly assumed positions have had positive impacts on gender dynamics and women’s position in society. The “cult of berehynia”, the notion of Ukrainian women as the home protectress, has weakened and traditional roles have blurred. Ukrainian women serve as a foil and contrast to the conventional gender norms disseminated by authoritarian regimes, including Russia, which traditionally reinforce patriarchal hierarchies and retain authority. It is therefore in Ukraine’s best interest to leverage 50 percent of their population as a strategic advantage.

According to a recent survey, approximately 84 percent of Ukrainian women and 90 percent of Ukrainian men agree that men and women serve equal roles in the war effort. The six percent difference perhaps demonstrates that women underestimate their worth, but the collective sentiment across men and women reflects the strong national unity and value of every individual’s contribution to the effort. Men and women are volunteering for combat, developing a similar understanding of drones and weapons, and experiencing military fatigue. 

Women are also providing volunteer mental health and medical aid on the frontline. Legitimacy of these female-dominated positions was initially strengthened after Russian military aggression against Ukraine in 2014. Legislation passed in 2019 recognized military volunteers as combatants and granted access to social protection measures and state support previously limited to military veterans and their families. 

To support agency and empower women’s leadership after the conflict, we must address several aspects of the current dynamic. For one, the role of media has contributed to the victimization of Ukrainian women, falling into the “trap” of presenting men as defenders and warriors and women as weak. Media should instead highlight women’s contributions to the country, promoting equality through the lens of national unity. Relief agencies must also be propped up to support women when they are most vulnerable—abuse and the normalization of aggression toward women and children is often heightened during times of stress like war. Organizations like La Strada Ukraine supply aid and support to victims in a time of increased reports of violence. In addition, the UN Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund offers psychological care, and has distributed $10 million to women-led humanitarian response organizations in Ukraine and to community-led recovery efforts. UN Women also supports the Ukrainian Women Veterans Movement, “Veteranka”, providing social and legal protection to veterans and their families. Their rehabilitation of female veterans bolsters advocacy for women’s rights in the army. 

Although efforts have been established to dispense aid, funding for women-led and women’s rights organizations in conflict and war-affected countries receives less than one percent of Official Development Assistance (ODA) globally. In Ukraine, only 0.2 percent of ODA-funded projects held gender equality as their key objective in 2022. Gender equality must therefore be reframed as a top priority, applying and incorporating the principle to every aspect of governance and society. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2025 does not presently include a gender perspective. The integration of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda into the country’s anti-corruption strategies could encourage women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution as post-conflict environments are fertile grounds for corruption and gender insecurity. 

These actions not only support women’s equality in Ukraine, they also promote democracy, peace, and prosperity. Studies have found a strong correlation between high levels of gender equality and a nation’s relative state of peace, healthy democratic security environment, and low levels of aggression toward other states. The physical security of women is regarded as a more useful predictor of these measures compared to levels of democracy or wealth; democracy and relative peacefulness can only hold if accompanied by an increase in gender equality. A number of policies have been recommended to support these goals—though most relevant to the case of Ukraine include expanding female political participation, empowering women economically, enabling female diplomats to engage in high-level decision-making, researching gender-based violence and discrimination, and mainstreaming gender equality in security and defense. 

The Ukrainian Government has launched a series of recent initiatives, especially as the country pursues the EU accession process. The Alliance for Gender Responsive and Inclusive Recovery (the Alliance) was launched at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in June 2024 in Berlin. Led by UN Women Ukraine, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the initiative places gender equality and women’s empowerment at the center of Ukrainian recovery and reconstruction. Governments, international finance institutions, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and the private sector convened to support the joint effort—including the now defunct U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Participation in the alliance demonstrates a strong commitment to Ukraine and should remain a priority for the U.S. despite recent changes to the structure of USAID and foreign aid spending. Trump’s first term saw the introduction of the “W-GDP Act”, a bill reflecting the signature policy of first daughter Ivanka Trump: the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative. Although the bill was not signed into law, the second Trump administration should pursue similar efforts to empower women across the developing world. 

In the face of declining foreign assistance commitments from the United States, the Council of Europe and Ukraine have strengthened Promoting Gender Equality in Ukraine (Pro-GE). The initiative promotes gender equality and equal rights during conflict and in the post-war period, reinforcing technical capacities of officials and civil society to advance the role of women in policy development, decision-making, and service provision. The collaboration raises awareness of gender equality in Ukraine and enhances the understanding of European and international standards. 

In addition to initiatives like the Alliance and Pro-GE, Ukraine has launched its first Gender Equality Index (GEI) using methodology from the European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE), an agency of the EU that promotes gender equality and the elimination of gender-based discrimination through independent research and best practice sharing. The approach is aligned with, and endorsed by, EU standards, highlighting Ukraine’s effort to abide by European values and join the EU. According to the GEI results, if Ukraine were a member of the EU, it would rank 20^th out of 28 member states, and place first among EU countries in civic engagement. The study identifies areas that still require attention including gender segregation in education where women remain in traditionally female fields like healthcare, education, and social services. The most significant gap between Ukraine and the EU lies in the GEI “Power” index, representing Ukrainian women’s underrepresentation in decision-making roles in politics, business, and public life. 

Ukraine has taken these rankings and scores to heart, already integrating eight of the 31 GEI indicators into their national strategy to guide reform and measure progress. The Ukrainian Government hopes to formally adopt the methodology by the State Statistic Service of Ukraine to ensure continuity, accuracy, and official status in the data. Legislative reform is also key to alignment with European values and law, and Ukraine has stated its plans to use the UN 2005 Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men as a reference and standard for their new framework. 

Ukraine’s active steps toward reforming legislation with women’s equality at its core demonstrates the shifting dynamics sweeping the nation. The country should capitalize on this unique moment: The mobilization of women in support of the war effort creates an opportunity to challenge existing gender norms and rethink the roles and responsibilities of women. Providing women with essential support during the conflict will strengthen democracy and enhance Ukraine’s international standing, bringing it closer to European values.