Alona Lebedieva
Today in Ukraine a woman is not only an employee, manager, or entrepreneur. She is also a team leader, a business founder, a public official keeping institutions functioning during wartime, and a servicewoman working on the front line. Increasingly, women simultaneously carry professional, economic, and family responsibilities. What once seemed exceptional is rapidly becoming a new social norm.
“The war has shown a very simple thing: when a country faces extraordinary pressure, responsibility is taken by those who are ready to act. In Ukraine, women did not simply support the system – they became its backbone,” says Alona Lebedieva, owner of the Ukrainian multidisciplinary industrial and investment group Aurum Group.
Even before 2022 Ukraine had been gradually moving toward greater gender equality in professional life. However, the war significantly accelerated these changes. As millions of men were mobilized into the armed forces and the economy began operating under constant stress, women assumed a growing share of managerial, entrepreneurial, and professional roles.
This shift is clearly visible in business. According to Opendatabot, in 2025 women headed 12,757 newly established companies in Ukraine – 34% of all new businesses. Overall, women now lead 455,298 companies, accounting for 32% of all registered companies in the country. This indicates that women’s leadership is no longer a series of individual success stories but a large-scale economic trend.
The largest number of women-led companies are registered in Kyiv, followed by the Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, and Odesa regions. In some regions the share is even higher. For example, in the Mykolaiv region women lead 42% of newly created companies, with strong representation also in the Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, and Zakarpattia regions. This shows that women’s economic leadership is emerging across the entire country.
Women are also increasingly entering sectors traditionally considered male-dominated. The fastest growth in female leadership has been recorded in computer manufacturing (up 76%), IT (72%), and machinery production (44%). This reflects not only a statistical shift but also a structural change in the economy, where professional competence is becoming more important than outdated gender stereotypes.
Women are also driving entrepreneurship in the small-business sector. In 2025 women registered 61% of new individual businesses in Ukraine. In wartime conditions, when communities face economic uncertainty and labor shortages, small businesses often become a key element of local resilience.
At the same time, gender balance remains uneven in public administration. As of mid-2025 women accounted for about 76% of civil servants in Ukraine, yet they held only around a quarter of the highest “Category A” positions. This reflects a broader structural imbalance: women sustain much of the daily work of the state but still have limited access to top decision-making positions.
“Ukrainian women have long proven their ability to ensure resilience during crises. But the real maturity of a state begins when women receive not only responsibilities but also full access to influence and decision-making,” Lebedieva emphasizes.
Changes are also visible in the security sector. At the beginning of 2024 there were 66,900 women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including 47,200 servicewomen. Thousands hold leadership positions, and around 4,000 serve directly on the line of contact. Women have therefore become part of Ukraine’s security architecture not as a symbol but as a real professional and leadership resource.
Ukraine’s experience is not unique – crises have historically expanded women’s roles in many countries. However, in Ukraine these changes are occurring simultaneously in the military, economic, social, and political spheres.
At the same time, this transformation should not be romanticized. The fact that women have taken on greater responsibilities does not automatically mean equality. Access to major resources, strategic positions, and key decision-making centers remains uneven.
“After the war, Ukraine will need not only reconstruction but also a new managerial class – more flexible, responsible, and results-oriented. Women are already an important part of this new leadership,” Lebedieva stresses.
Ukraine’s future strength will depend not only on resilience but also on how effectively the country uses its human capital. In that future, the role of women will be greater than ever before.
Alona Lebedieva
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Aurum Group
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