How conscription pushes women into “male jobs”

The war is changing the labor market by increasing the number of women in traditionally male-dominated positions. However, working conditions are still worse for them than they could be for men.

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KYIV, Ukraine — “Is anyone there?” Natalia heard a deep male voice. She could only see the stranger’s boots peeking out from under the hood of the red sedan. Still, she knew exactly how the conversation would unfold. She had replayed it hundreds of times over the past year.

“Yes, how can I help you?” She stepped out from behind the car to greet the customer.

His face showed confusion as he looked around and asked, “Is there a mechanic here?”

“Yes, how can I help you?” Natalia continued the conversation patiently, although she was growing irritated. She knew what would be said next.

“Isn’t there a male mechanic?” the man asked, confirming her prediction.

Natalia Pavliy has worked at an auto repair shop for most of her life. She first helped her father as a child and then her husband. Since her husband joined the military, she has taken on most of his work. Prejudice from new clients is an unavoidable part of her job.

Natalia works at the car repair shop. Photo provided by her.

In July 2026, about 1,500 Ukrainian women had completed a six-month retraining program to work in jobs once thought to be for men only, a figure that likely understates the real number of women now qualified for this kind of work.

Full-scale war forced hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men to leave civilian life and serve on the front lines. A large portion of the population also fled the country. This labor void had to be filled, causing 64 percent of Ukrainian companies to hire women for traditionally “male” positions.

It was not always like that. In 1993, the Ministry of Health officially banned women from approximately 450 occupations deemed “hazardous,” ranging from foundry work and metallurgy to operating locomotives and subways, driving long-haul trucks, and firefighting.

The list of prohibited industries was not repealed until 2017, yet women remained underrepresented in these fields despite the extremely high demand for labor in Ukraine four years later; in 2021, approximately one third of people employed in agriculture, industry, transportation, and warehousing were women. Even as women take on these new roles, they continue to earn significantly less than the men who previously held them — exposing a significant gender pay gap that has only widened during the war.

Natalia grew up without a mother who left the family to start a new life in Europe. Getting involved in her father’s business and learning about traditionally male pursuits were part of her life from childhood on.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to play with dolls, dress up as a princess, or have tea parties. It’s just that I had no other choice,” Natalia said. “It was unusual for a man to raise his daughter. Usually, when the mother wasn’t around, grandmothers or other women in the family took care of that. But I was with my father, so I spent hours at his auto repair shop for as long as I can remember.”

During the war, the government built formal infrastructure, including free retraining programs like Reskilling Ukraine, training vouchers and subsidies of roughly 30,000 UAH (about $670) for employers who hire women after they complete training.

Natalia did not have access to these resources; she learned the trade the old way, standing next to her father.

As early as the third grade, Natalia was taking apart a carburetor with her father and doing some repairs on her own. “I could have easily replaced a flat tire if I’d had the strength to lift the tire.”

She learned to identify some problems by the sound they made. Sometimes, when Natalia was driving with her dad on the highway, they would play a game. He would say, “Do you hear that knocking sound? What do you think it is?” and she had to guess.

Despite being so involved in her father’s work, Natalia never wanted to become a mechanic, so she studied to become a fashion designer instead.

“I didn’t even get my driver’s license. As far as I was concerned, only men were supposed to drive,” said Natalia. “Now I think it’s strange because I’ve known a lot about cars my whole life. But I didn’t realize the extent that could be a serious part of my life.”

Photo taken by Natalia during her driving lesson.

In 2024, Natalia’s husband joined the military. At first, he simply closed his auto repair shop, but just two months later, he realized how important such a service was in a city near the front lines. The couple then reopened the shop in Kharkiv under Natalia’s leadership.

“I had been out of work for a while back then; I left my last job because of problems with my pay, and my husband suggested I try working at his auto repair shop,” Natalia said.

Natalia’s situation was not unusual; the percentage of women among Ukraine’s registered unemployed has climbed from 55 to 81 percent since the full-scale invasion, according to Stanislav Pavlenko, Deputy Director of the State Employment Center. This jump is partly due to men avoiding official employment to evade mobilization and partly due to entire sectors of the economy losing their workforce overnight.

Natalia was at a loss as to how to approach the new venture. She wasn’t sure she could handle it because until then she had only helped men — her husband and her father — and worked behind the scenes. Now she had to take matters into her own hands.

On the first day the service resumed under Natalia’s leadership, she had no customers. “I knew days like this were normal, especially since the service hadn’t operated for a long time. Even our old customers didn’t know we were open again. But I felt as if everything had fallen apart because of me.”

The car repair service where Natalia works. Photo provided by her.

On the way home, she burst into tears while talking to her husband. She felt guilty for bothering him with trivial matters while he was on duty, but he reassured her. “It’s okay if things don’t work out. After all, it’s just a job. You can always find another one. But don’t doubt yourself, because you’ve spent your whole life at the auto repair shop,” he said.

Her anxiety wasn’t without reason. Among all candidates for cash-in-transit courier roles, only 1.3% of submitted resumes are from women.

“Now I realize it [Natalia’s anxiety] didn’t make much sense because demand is actually high. A lot of military personnel are getting their vehicles repaired, and my old customers have come back because they know how I work,” Natalia said.

From January to October 2025, women registered more than 153,000 new sole proprietorships nationwide, accounting for 61 percent of all new businesses. Over the past four years, the number of legal entities with a female CEO has increased by 75 percent.

According to the State Employment Service, women most frequently choose careers as woodworking machine operators, boiler room operators, tractor drivers, trolleybus drivers, forklift drivers, and repair mechanics within the framework of the official retraining program.

This pattern is not new. During World War II, for example, women in the U.S. workforce increased as men left for the front. Roughly six million women entered the workforce to support the war effort. Before the war, women made up only 1 percent of the American aircraft industry. By 1943, they accounted for 65 times more of it.

However, once the war ended, the percentage of working women dropped to almost pre-war levels within the next year as men returned and reclaimed the jobs that women had been trained to do.

Natalia at an auto repair shop. Photo provided by her.

“Unfortunately, many men have died and many women have left Ukraine and are unlikely to return. I don’t think women will lose their jobs in the future,” said Natalia.

Demographers project that Ukraine will emerge from the war with approximately 90 men for every 100 women. Among people of reproductive age, however, the ratio may reverse, with men outnumbering women, as those who fled abroad may choose not to return.

At the same time, Ukrainian women bear the disproportionate burden of unpaid household labor, raising children largely alone and caring for wounded or missing spouses in addition to their paid work.

“Women aren’t considered good mechanics. I have to work much harder to convince people that I’m qualified, even though I don’t have children yet. I really don’t know how I’d manage if I had kids,” said Natalia.

Nevertheless, she no longer considers auto mechanics to be a male-dominated profession. She reacts with great irritation to such comments.

“If I had a daughter interested in cars, I’d constantly tell her how cool and knowledgeable she is,” Natalia said. “Actually, if I ever have a daughter, she’ll be able to look to me as an example, and it won’t seem strange to her anymore,” she added with a smile.

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THE LATEST NEWS AT THIS HOUR:

By: Oleksandra Poda

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

THIRD DAY OF PROTESTS IN UKRAINE: On July 16 and 17, Ukrainians took to the streets in Kyiv and other cities following President Zelenskyy’s decision to dismiss Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Protesters plan to gather again on the evening of the 18th.

Initially, the goal of the protests was to support Fedorov, who is credited with revolutionizing drone technology. But now, calls for the resignation of Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, are growing louder. Fedorov himself stated that Syrskyi secured his dismissal by issuing an ultimatum to Zelenskyy.

On July 17, the Cabinet of Ministers approved Yevhen Khmara, the former head of the SBU’s Alpha unit, as acting defense minister. Meanwhile, it was reported that military brigades were ordered to record videos expressing support for Syrskyi.

UKRAINE’S STRIKES ON RUSSIAN OIL HIT U.S. CONSUMERS: According to Axios, Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries have caused an economic shock now being experienced by American consumers. After Russia banned diesel exports in response to the strikes, the average price of diesel in the U.S. surpassed $5 per gallon on Thursday.

Ukraine’s drone campaign has contributed to rising global energy prices, which were already high due to the war with Iran.

HUNGARY BLOCKS UKRAINE’S EU ACCESSION, AGAIN: On July 17, at a meeting of the EU Council’s Working Group on Enlargement (COELA), Hungary once again blocked the opening of negotiating clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine, a crucial step in the EU accession process, but agreed to support negotiating cluster 3 for Moldova. However, other EU member states refused to separate the accession processes of the two countries, so no decision was reached.

Despite lifting Orban’s 17-month veto in May, Hungary, under the leadership of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, is once again blocking Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Magyar claims that opening all clusters simultaneously would send the “wrong signal” to Western Balkan countries that have been waiting for years to join the EU.

The next COELA meeting is scheduled for July 22 — the last one before the summer break. Enlargement negotiations will not resume until September 1.

THE MAJORITY OF POLES OPPOSE ACCEPTING UKRAINIAN REFUGEES: The Center for Public Opinion Research (CBOS), a Polish polling institute, published a poll on July 17 revealing that, for the first time since 2014, 52% of Poles oppose accepting Ukrainian refugees. Support for Ukrainian refugees stood at 94% in 2022, immediately after the start of the full-scale invasion. A separate poll done in June by the Polish IBRiS research institute showed that 59.7% of Poles oppose Ukraine’s accession to the EU.

Factors cited include economic fatigue after hosting over a million refugees, competition for jobs and for public services, and a diplomatic dispute over how Ukraine is treating the history of Ukrainian nationalist partisans. The latter dispute led to Zelenskyy being stripped of the Order of the White Eagle in June.

DOG OF WAR:

On Thursday, Oleksandra met this little dog at the protest. When society wants change, not even dogs will stay on the sidelines.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Oleksandra.