Women’s Right to Vote in Ukraine, Women's Suffrage

Women, Culture and Peace › Women’s Days for Culture of Peace › Calendar › Culture Women’s Day Ukraine › Ukraine

Culture Women's Day Ukraine

Women's Right to Vote / November 20, (1917)

One of 193 national Women’s Days for Culture of Peace — a day for every UN member state. See the full calendar.

UA

When did women get the right to vote in Ukraine?

On November 20, 1917, the Ukrainian Central Rada issued its Third Universal. This act proclaimed the Ukrainian People’s Republic and granted universal suffrage to all citizens over 20, regardless of gender.

Ukraine did this before many Western democracies. Women in the United Kingdom gained only partial suffrage in 1918. Women in the United States waited until 1920.

The right was declared, but hard to exercise immediately. The fledgling Ukrainian People’s Republic faced Bolshevik military pressure almost at once. The planned constituent elections of January 1918 were never completed. Soviet rule followed. Yet the founding declaration of November 20, 1917 remains a genuine and historic milestone.

How did Ukrainian women win the vote?

Ukraine’s path to suffrage grew from two parallel struggles: the fight for women’s rights and the fight for national self-determination. The two movements reinforced each other.

  • Late 19th century. Women’s organizations began forming across Ukrainian territories, both under the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungarian rule. Their goals combined literacy, community welfare, and women’s political participation.
  • 1887. The feminist journal Pershyi Vinok (First Wreath) was published, platforming women’s voices and rights in print for the first time.
  • 1905-1917. The collapse of Russian Imperial authority created space for Ukrainian political organization. Women’s groups allied with broader national-liberation movements.
  • November 20, 1917. The Third Universal of the Central Rada granted universal suffrage as part of proclaiming the Ukrainian People’s Republic.
  • 1920 onwards. Soviet rule extended formal equal rights but within a one-party system. Genuine political choice remained limited throughout this period.
  • 1991. Ukrainian independence restored democratic suffrage. Women’s political participation became a real, if still developing, reality.

Key Women in the Ukrainian Suffrage Movement

Olena Pchilka (1849-1930)
Born Olha Drahomanova, Olena Pchilka was a prominent writer, ethnographer, and women’s rights advocate. As the mother of renowned Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka, she established one of the first Ukrainian women’s organizations and published the feminist journal “Pershyi vinok” (First Wreath) in 1887, providing a platform for discussing women’s rights.

Sofia Rusova (1856-1940)
A significant figure in Ukrainian education and women’s movements, Rusova founded numerous educational institutions and actively participated in the women’s rights movement. She advocated for women’s education and political rights, understanding that education was key to women’s emancipation and political participation.

Milena Rudnytska (1892-1976)
Though active slightly later in the suffrage timeline, Rudnytska became one of the most influential Ukrainian female politicians in the interwar period. She was elected to the Polish Sejm (parliament) representing Western Ukrainian territories and was a fierce advocate for women’s and national rights.

Yulia Tymoshenko (1960- )
Ukraine’s first female Prime Minister, Tymoshenko served twice, in 2005 and 2007-2010, becoming one of the most recognized political figures in post-independence Ukraine. Her career demonstrated that the highest executive offices were open to women.

Iryna Vereshchuk (1978- )
A military officer and politician, Vereshchuk served as Ukraine’s Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories. She has been one of the most visible women in the Ukrainian government during the current war.

Hanna Hopko (1980- )
A former Member of Parliament and civil society leader, Hopko chaired the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. She now works internationally on human rights and accountability for wartime crimes in Ukraine.

Why this day matters today

Ukraine ranked 62nd out of 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, with a score of 0.730. That marks genuine progress, up from 66th in 2023.

This improvement is striking given the context. Since February 2022, Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion. Yet Ukrainian women have taken on expanded roles throughout this period: in the military, in governance, in humanitarian response, and in keeping civil society functioning under extraordinary pressure.

The wartime period has not resolved Ukraine’s gender gaps. But it has shown the depth and adaptability of Ukrainian women’s civic leadership.

Explore current gender equality data at Gender Gap Ukraine, where the full WEF rankings and UN Women data are tracked year by year.

Culture Women’s Day within Women, Culture and Peace

Culture Women’s Day Ukraine is part of a larger framework: Women, Culture and Peace (WCP). WCP builds on UNESCO’s Culture of Peace programme and the UN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda.

WCP works through culture, art, and community rather than formal institutions alone. It follows a women-centered organizing model, developed by scholars Stall and Stoecker. This model builds relationships and shared leadership, instead of competing for power.

Women’s Days for Culture of Peace is one expression of WCP. The initiative marks a day for every UN member state — 193 in total. Each day recognizes a nation’s path toward women’s political voice. Each day also opens space to reflect on peacebuilding, gender equality, and sustainable development still ahead, central to SDG 5.

Ukraine’s day carries particular resonance right now. It marks a country that pioneered women’s suffrage in 1917, and whose women are currently living through one of Europe’s most serious conflicts since 1945.

What could Culture Women’s Day Ukraine become?

This day is still young within the Women’s Days for Culture of Peace calendar. Its meaning is not fixed. It can grow as more people discover it and decide what it should hold.

For many Ukrainians inside the country, daily life under war makes public commemoration difficult. Yet the day does not belong only to people inside Ukraine. As with Afghanistan, this is a day the wider world can mark in solidarity.

Ukrainian women living abroad can lead this day for their homeland. Women and men from any of the 193 countries can join. Culture Women’s Day Ukraine can become a moment to notice what Ukrainian women have built, defended, and continued to do, while most of the world watches from a distance.

Ideas for celebration and reflection

These are starting points, not a program. Pick what resonates. Leave the rest. Add your own.

  • Online. Share a post or story using #CultureWomensDay or #WCP, and name a woman from Ukraine, who inspired you.
  • In schools. Start a classroom dialogue about women’s suffrage in Ukraine, paired with a question: what does political voice mean today?
  • In culture. Organize a library display, a small exhibition, or a reading group built around women’s history in Ukraine.
  • In organizations. Pause during a team meeting to mark Culture Women’s Day Ukraine and connect it to ongoing equality work.
  • At home or with friends. Share one story about a woman, who shaped your own family or community history.
  • In communities. Host a local PeaceTable-style gathering, open to anyone with a story, a question, or an idea to bring.

Some of these need an afternoon. Others need only a sentence shared with a colleague. Both matter.

A growing network, one country at a time

Ukraine is one node in a global pattern of 193 national days. Most countries can mark their day with open celebration. Ukraine, for now, asks something different from those outside it: attention, solidarity, and the small, consistent acts of remembrance that keep a country’s story visible to the world.

RYB does not direct this growth. It offers the framework, the calendar, and the connection back to WCP. What happens next depends on the people who discover it, including Ukrainian women themselves, whenever conditions allow.

Looking Forward

Culture Women’s Day Ukraine marks November 20, 1917, when the Ukrainian People’s Republic declared universal suffrage in one of its first acts of national self-determination. That date anchors this day in a proud and specific history.

Its future remains open, as with every country in the calendar. For now, the day stands as both a historic commemoration and a living act of solidarity. Ukraine’s women won the right to vote over a century ago. They are still building, still leading, and still fighting for the conditions in which that right can be fully realized.

The invitation stands open. Explore the Women, Culture and Peace framework, browse the calendar of 193 national days, and consider what solidarity with Ukraine could mean to you on November 20.

Sources and Links

Share this story: