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Elegant woman with striking features sitting inside a luxury car, exuding sophistication and style, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine | photo Noyami

Gender Gap Ukraine

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The Gender Gap in Ukraine: War, Recovery, and a Fight for Equality

Ukraine ranks 62nd out of 148 countries on the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, scoring 0.730. That marks a slight improvement on prior years. However, Russia’s full-scale invasion has reversed decades of progress in several key areas. This article examines how war has reshaped gender equality in Ukraine, from employment and safety to political representation and reintegration.

World Economic Forum

Global Gender Gap Report

The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.

2025
Rank: 62 (out of 148 countries)
Score: 0.730
› report

2023
Rank: 66 (out of 146 countries)
Score: 0.714

2021
Rank: 74 (out of 156 countries)
Score: 0.714

2020
Rank: 59 (out of 153 countries)
Score: 0.721

2016
Rank: 69 (out of 144 countries)
Score: 0.700

The Employment and Economic Gap

War has hit working women especially hard. In 2023, women made up 72.5% of Ukraine’s unemployed population. By 2024, only 48% of displaced women held jobs, compared to 71% of displaced men. Meanwhile, the gender pay gap doubled since 2021: women earned 41.4% less than men in 2023.

Unpaid care work has grown too. Women spent 56 hours a week on childcare in 2024, up from 49 hours before the war. Closed childcare facilities have added to this burden. Still, women have driven entrepreneurship forward. Today, one in every two new businesses in Ukraine has a female founder.

Safety and Gender-Based Violence

Conflict has sharply increased violence against women and girls. Gender-based violence has risen 36% since 2022. Returning soldiers often carry untreated trauma, which can spill into domestic life. Consequently, mobile psychosocial teams now respond to surging reports across the country.

More than 2.5 million people currently need gender-based violence prevention or response services. In turn, hotlines, shelters, and crisis centers have expanded to meet demand. Even so, funding for women-led organizations keeps shrinking, even as need keeps growing.

Political and Military Representation

Women hold about 21% of seats in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. That share sits below both the global average and Europe’s regional average. Nevertheless, women’s presence in the military has grown dramatically. Over 70,000 women now serve, and women’s share of the officer corps rose from 4% in 2023 to 21% today.

This shift raises urgent questions about the future. Training, equipment, and veteran care must now account for women in combat roles. Ukrainian civil society groups, including JurFem and the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, are pushing for a formal voice in peace negotiations.

Veteran Reintegration

Ukraine faces the reintegration of an estimated five million veterans, including growing numbers of women. Female veterans encounter distinct barriers: social stigma, exposure to conflict-related sexual violence, and heavier caregiving duties after service. Access to jobs remains especially difficult for women with combat experience.

In response, the government approved a state program called Veteran. Work for 2026–2027. It funds employment support and skills training for returning veterans. Grassroots groups, such as the Veteranka women veterans’ movement, have also stepped in to prepare communities for their return.

Recovery and EU Accession

Gender equality now sits inside Ukraine’s reconstruction agenda. The Alliance for Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery, launched in 2024, places women’s empowerment at the center of rebuilding plans. At the June 2026 Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, advocates pushed donors to move past inclusion rhetoric toward funded commitments.

Proposed tools include a multi-donor fund for gender-inclusive recovery and a blended finance facility for women-led small businesses. However, only 0.2% of aid projects listed gender equality as a key objective in 2022. Therefore, closing that funding gap remains an unfinished task.

Looking Forward

Ukraine’s path to gender equality now runs through war, recovery, and EU accession at once. Progress on paper coexists with deep, lived setbacks for millions of women. Veteran reintegration, safe recovery funding, and stronger political representation will shape the next chapter. As Ukraine rebuilds, sustained international support for women-led organizations will matter as much as any single policy reform.

UN Women

Women Count Data Hub: Ukraine

Country Fact Sheet
> data.unwomen.org/country/ukraine

Sources

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