The full-scale war has forced millions of Ukrainian women to reconsider their professional plans. For some, it has become a catalyst for career growth, starting a business or mastering a new profession. For others, it has been a period of emotional exhaustion, when the main goal was not a promotion but keeping their job and maintaining psychological well-being. As a result, the very understanding of a successful career is changing: more and more women are evaluating it not only in terms of position or salary, but also in terms of the ability to combine professional development with their own well-being. These trends are also confirmed by the results of a Gradus study.
The constant flow of war-related information, air raid alerts and chronic uncertainty make professional burnout one of the key challenges facing the modern Ukrainian labour market. Among women specifically, emotional burnout has affected more than half: 56% of them experienced significant emotional exhaustion due to the war over the past year. Ukrainian women often combine professional responsibilities with caring for children, elderly parents or relatives affected by the war: 38% of women spend more time on household chores, 24% on childcare, and almost half on their own health and supporting relatives.
Despite the enormous pressure, Ukrainian women demonstrate remarkable resilience. Although emotional burnout among women has reached a high level, this has not weakened their professional ambitions. On the contrary, Ukrainian women are increasingly willing to take on management responsibilities, master new professions, including those traditionally considered “male”, and view entrepreneurship as a path to professional fulfilment. This is the paradox of wartime: war takes away a sense of stability and the ability to plan for the future, but it cannot stop the desire for professional development. According to Gradus Research, in 2026, 55% of Ukrainian women are ready for promotion and expanded management responsibilities (compared with 50% in 2024), while entrepreneurship and self-employment are increasingly seen as the most attractive career paths.
Today, financial compensation and work-life balance have become equally important. Work is now seen less as an end in itself and more as a source of stability and psychological security.
The war has created new opportunities for women. Due to mobilisation and a severe labour shortage, businesses have started to open more positions that were traditionally considered “male” jobs. However, for these opportunities to become a reality, simply having vacancies available is not enough. It is equally important to develop family support infrastructure — above all, by adapting the working hours of kindergartens and other social services.
Ukrainian women see management positions and running their own businesses as ways to fulfil their ambitions. At the same time, changes are taking place not only in attitudes towards careers but also in the choice of professions. Women are increasingly entering manufacturing, logistics, construction, transport and technical professions. I am confident that increasing women's economic participation will become one of the key factors in Ukraine's post-war recovery. After all, the labour shortage itself is gradually breaking down long-standing gender stereotypes in the labour market.
Today, career ambitions increasingly mean more than simply climbing the corporate ladder. For many Ukrainian women, they involve changing professions or acquiring new skills.
Most Ukrainians are willing to study in order to earn a higher income, while women remain one of the key groups whose potential is still underutilised by the economy. At the same time, almost half of women are not yet ready to consider retraining for traditionally “male” professions, which indicates that psychological and social barriers remain. This is why vocational retraining programmes will become increasingly important.
The war has changed not only employees' expectations but also their requirements for managers. Today, employees expect managers to offer not only professional competence but also empathy, open communication and a willingness to support their teams during crises. Trust in leadership is often what determines whether people are willing to stay with a company and grow with it. Therefore, women's economic participation depends not only on legal guarantees but also on the actual availability of career opportunities, equal opportunities for advancement and flexible employment arrangements.
Finally, individual career ambitions are shaped not only by personal decisions but also by corporate culture and systemic factors. Many women still face stereotypes at the recruitment stage: 39% of them reported being asked during job interviews whether they had children who needed care, while 26% were asked about their plans to have children.
In Ukraine, women are more likely than men to have to stay at home to care for children or sick relatives. At the same time, only 7.7% of Ukrainian workers can take a few hours off work to deal with family matters. This is the lowest rate in the EU. As a result, combining a career with household responsibilities is extremely difficult in Ukraine. In addition, a very noticeable gender divide still exists in the Ukrainian labour market: women significantly outnumber men in the social sector (education, healthcare and social assistance), while women's access to “heavy” professions is only beginning to increase.
These deeply rooted norms and stereotypes continue to limit women's career growth, while the war has only increased their economic vulnerability and workload. At the same time, the Ukrainian labour market is increasingly relying on women's ability to adapt to crisis conditions, but still does not provide them with equal access to influence and opportunities.
Questions about plans to start a family during job interviews, tolerance of toxic behaviour in the workplace, or biased attitudes towards women's professional competence are no longer isolated cases but manifestations of a systemic problem, also confirmed by international research.
If the government and businesses truly see women as one of the key driving forces behind the post-war economic recovery, investment must go beyond creating new opportunities. It is equally important to build a culture of respect, equal opportunities and zero tolerance for discrimination. Such changes will enable Ukrainian women to realise their full potential in the labour market.
The full-scale war has hardly made Ukrainian women less ambitious. Rather, it has changed the very meaning of these ambitions. If career success was previously often measured by position or income level, today psychological resilience, opportunities for learning, financial independence and work that does not lead to burnout are becoming more important.
For businesses, this means the need to reconsider traditional approaches to workforce management. Competition for talent will increasingly depend not only on salary but also on trust, flexibility, development opportunities and employee well-being. These conditions can become one of the key factors in Ukraine's economic recovery and women's greater participation in shaping it.
However, the success of these individual changes depends on systemic transformation. Governments and employers must create conditions where women's potential is not held back by established gender norms and limited access to social services. Investment in childcare, flexible working hours, free education and anti-discrimination policies is essential to turn women's personal resilience and ambitions into a real contribution to the country's recovery. Only when every Ukrainian woman has equal opportunities for career development and a safe working environment will her ambitions become one of the driving forces behind Ukraine's post-war recovery and innovative development.
Translation into English was created with the help of artificial intelligence.
