‘It all started in 2017. Initially, it was just a hobby that grew into a business. I was making a knife sheath as a gift for my husband. He asked me to sew it, but I kept putting it off, and eventually, he had to do it himself (Laughs). He found a piece of leather and started working on it. That’s how our interest in leather goods began.

‘I am a music teacher by education, with 15 years of teaching experience in schools, but I’ve been cultivating mushrooms for about 20 years. So, I’ve been an entrepreneur longer than I was a teacher. I started by producing mycelium — the planting material for mushrooms. After the pandemic we noticed that dried products like tomatoes and fruits were popular, but there were no mushrooms in this segment. So, we decided to give it a try. We developed a process, created recipes with various flavors—and that’s how the story of "Mushroom Jerky" began...

‘I worked in the corporate sector, focusing on marketing, customer service, and analytics, but I wanted to ground myself. When I learned about organic greenhouses, it sparked my interest. For three years, I studied various agricultural crops, horticulture, and vegetable farming, attended conferences and workshops, and visited farms that welcomed guests...

‘It all began in my childhood. I grew up surrounded by the carpets and tapestries my mother created. Since my mother, Zenovia Shulha, is a textile artist, this art form has always been a significant part of my life. While I don’t have the talent for drawing or weaving myself, my passion for everything related to art has always been a part of who I am. Perhaps this decision was years in the making. By profession, I’m an economist...

The UN Women Ukraine team, together with Marie Claire Business and with funding from the Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), went on a media expedition to find out how women and girls are participating in Ukraine's economic recovery.

Kristina Nikolaienko (28), co-founder of the Zalizo enterprise from the frontline city of Mykolaiv, calls on women to run businesses in heavy industry and process manufacturing. Kristina is among the women entrepreneurs participating in the Women's Entrepreneurship EXPO 2024. Despite the danger and challenges of wartime, she confidently operates the metalwork and furniture manufacturing business, successfully scaling it and entering new markets.

Although security sector officers face trauma in the line of duty, these experiences play no significant role in their attitudes and behaviours related to gender equality. So, gender stereotypes derive not from the nature of work in the security sector but from general social attitudes, childhood experiences, and other factors. This is one of the key findings of a national study entitled Understanding of Masculinity and Gender Equality in the Security Sector of Ukraine, commissioned by UN Women Ukraine and the non-governmental organization Promundo-US at the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Ukraine.

Natalia Kalyuzhna is a Police Captain and Head of the Counteracting Gender-based Violence Unit at the Main Directorate of the National Police in Sievierodonetsk, a city in the conflict-affected eastern part of Ukraine. She applies innovative approaches to address the needs of violence survivors and women at risk.