Rebuilding Ukraine Starts With Her: The Case For Women’s Economic Equality

By: Maria Herr

Millions of Ukrainian women are fighting two wars; one against Russia, and another against poverty. As men leave for battle, women are keeping Ukraine’s economy alive. But will their economic independence survive the war? Women in Ukraine are working more than ever, both in newly opened professions and in their homes. Martial law has lifted restrictions on women in “dangerous” jobs, allowing them to step into roles as miners, electricians, welders, etc. Despite increased opportunities, in 2023, women earned 41% less than men, effectively doubling the pay gap since 2021. Simultaneously, they are bearing the brunt of unpaid labor, raising children alone, and struggling with dire financial insecurity, as male family members fight or have been killed. Women now spend an average of 56 hours per week on childcare, up from 49 hours before the war. To prevent a postwar regression into inequality, Ukraine and its international partners must ensure that women’s access to employment, equal pay, and workplace protection are not just wartime exceptions, but permanent foundations of recovery.

The war forced Ukraine to drop labor restrictions that banned women from certain professions, proving that these policies were never about ability, only outdated gender norms. Although women now work in logistics, security, and heavy industry, they still earn less than men in the same field, and often go home to suffer abuse from men who have returned from the war. With millions of men at the frontlines or lost to war, women have become sole providers for their households, but remain financially insecure. Without legal protections, equal pay, and access to financial resources, many are left vulnerable to exploitation, homelessness, and extreme poverty.

Countless women cannot support themselves or their families and are now forced to make impossible choices. With prices rising and supply chains disrupted, Ukrainian women are struggling to support their families and cannot afford menstrual products, and must make impossible choices between food and basic hygiene. Lack of access to sanitary products in war zones and refugee camps has severe health consequences for displaced women and girls. Some have turned to transaction sex survival, exchanging their bodies for security, food, or protection. Women are particularly at risk in occupied territories, border crossings, and refugee camps. War disrupts even the most stable jobs that already exist — and the fact that so many women lacked access to them to begin with makes their position even more precarious. Without intervention, these wartime inequalities will only worsen in peacetime. When wars end, emergency roles often disappear, temporary labor rights are rolled back, and without structural reform, women are pushed back into economic marginalization, without the urgency of war to justify their economic inclusion. Reconstruction efforts must recognize women as economic actors, not just wartime necessities.

In order to lift women out of economic fragility, while also preparing for future conflict and helping the Ukrainian economy, all wartime workforce openings for women need to be made permanent, and wages to be made equal. In September 2023, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers approved the National Strategy for Bridging the Gender Pay Gap until 2030, a necessary first step to reduce the existing wage disparity through modernizing labor legislations and enforcing equal pay. The European Union, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund must condition post-war financial assistance on gender equal labor laws. Governments and nongovernmental organization must ensure refugee camps and conflict zones have free and accessible hygiene supplies. Displaced, widowed, and single-mother households should receive direct financial aid to prevent transactional sex and other forms of economic exploitation. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) already operates cash assistance programs in Ukraine to support internally displaced and war-affected individuals prioritizing vulnerable groups like single mothers and female-headed households to help them meet basic needs and reduce exposure to risk. Strategies like these will be vital to making progress on improving conditions for Ukrainian women, both during war and peace.

The war in Ukraine has significantly altered the structure of the national labor force, expanding access for women to previously restricted professions. These changes represent a meaningful shift in formal opportunity. However, opportunity alone is insufficient. Women continue to face systematic barriers that prevent full participation in the labor market. Financial insecurity, inadequate legal protections, and unequal pay persist, compounding the difficulties of living in a conflict affected environment. To ensure that progress made during wartime is not temporary, Ukraine must implement long-term structural reforms that support the sustained economic inclusion of women, including enforcing gender-equal labor laws, expanding access to childcare, and providing financial assistance for menstrual products. Women have proven essential to Ukraine’s wartime economy; they must be equally central to its reconstruction.