‘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.

This opinion was expressed by Sabine Freizer Gunes, UN Women Representative in Ukraine. She believes that attention to gender equality issues in Ukraine helped the country to respond promptly to the problem of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and to counter it.

Rural women face multiple forms of discrimination and are extremely vulnerable amid Russia’s military invasion. Sofia Burtak founded the Rural Women Business Network NGO in 2016, which now unites over 300 rural women, including farmers, self-government officials and others. It is actively engaged in supporting the rights of rural women and advocating for a gender-sensitive agricultural sector that takes the interests of women farmers and women’s agricultural businesses more into account. Burtak explains that since Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, rural women have been bearing an immense burden in caring for families, ensuring food supply for the army and hosting millions of internally displaced Ukrainians.

The public association the Rural Women's Business Network recently signed a Partner Agreement with the UN Women Project, Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment through Decentralization Reform of Ukraine. This initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. Under the new Partner Agreement , the Association will facilitate mobilization of women from 13 communities to participate in local governance across four regions: Volyn, Chernivtsi, Kherson and Sumy.

The enhanced participation of women in public life can bring transformative changes to their communities. Women want to be actively engaged in local decision-making processes and they have proved that they can drive positive results when in top political positions, believes Sofia Maksymenko. She is the self-help group leader and newly elected head of Zvanivka, a community in the conflict-affected Donetsk oblast located near the contact line.