Ukrainian Women Train for Blue-Collar Jobs As Workforce Gaps Grow

Kuzmina is one of many women joining essential services as the war against Russia progresses.

Between January and May, the number of employed women rose from about 45,000 to nearly 48,000. Those numbers could jump: The number of women undergoing vocational training, like Kuzmina, rose 75% over the same period, to nearly 17,000, according to a state website.

Because of worker shortages in fields like driving, mechanical work, and road work, the Ukrainian government launched a program that provides women with training vouchers. It allows them to receive free training in educational institutes or directly with an employer in their chosen profession. But Ukrainian women must still contend with employers and even family members who aren’t always on board with more women taking traditionally male jobs.

Serving in the Army

Kuzmina is no stranger to difficult jobs. She served in the Ukrainian Army for two years. She joined the military in 2020 as a desk clerk, after studying accounting and bookkeeping. She later became a grenade launcher at the 46th separate assault, or the Donbas Battalion.

But soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kuzmina’s commander disbanded the unit because of a lack of resources.

“We had nothing — no ammunition, nothing to defend ourselves with,” she said. Her unit commander “told the battalion commander that: ‘I am not going to waste my people as cannon fodder.'”

She also had personal obligations. Heavy military operations in her hometown, Torestsk, made it impossible for her ill father to receive treatment. She moved him to a different town and discharged herself from the military to focus on caregiving.

In May, she wanted another way to actively support Ukraine’s war efforts and decided to join a local power substation.

“Working in the electricity supply network is important to me because this highly critical infrastructure is currently under constant shelling,” she said, about Russian attacks on power facilities. “The enemy is attacking us from all sides. They are trying to bend us under their will.”

Attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities are part of the Russian campaign aimed at introducing blackouts across the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last month that Russia had damaged or destroyed more than half of Ukraine’s power generation.

There have been 11 sets of missile and drone attacks on power and gas stations in 2024 alone, per Reuters. Locals are concerned about how the infrastructure will hold up in colder months, when energy is required for heating.

Ukraine, too, targets Russian refineries and oil terminals to weaken the Kremlin’s military capability.

Employment gap

In its third year, the conflict has created a big need for workers.

Tens of thousands volunteered to join the military, while 650,000 men left the country to dodge conscriptions, according to a Eurostat estimate. Around 6.3 million people, mostly women and children, have left Ukraine as refugees, and 3.7 million people are internally displaced, per the UN, creating a large gap in young, skilled workers.

“It would be fair to say that there are both blue-collar and white-collar vacancies that are affected,” said Yana Lukashuk, head of recruitment at Lobby X, a Kyiv-based job agency. “Men who joined the Army and women with or without children who fled the country from all domains have formed a huge talent gap on the market.”

Kuzmina, is one of two female employees at her power station, but is one of several women stepping up to fill blue-collar jobs that are now vacant because they were primarily occupied by men.

“More and more female candidates are becoming factory workers, technicians, drivers, et cetera as they can do nothing else but to fill many important vacant jobs in some regions where men are lacking,” Lukashuk told BI.

Effects of a Soviet-era law

One expert told BI that the trend is an especially notable feat because of a Soviet-era law that prohibited women from a list of about 450 occupations.

Ukraine repealed the law in 2017, but its effects are still ingrained in society, said Olga Kupets, a labor economics professor at the Kyiv School of Economics.

There is still some legal debate over whether the restrictions remain, and some coaches and lecturers in the vocational education system are not ready to train women yet, Kupets said. Even if those two issues can be overcome, there is strong pushback from society, according to Kupets.

“On one hand, there is a lack of people, lack of men, and there is official willingness from the government to help women work in these previously male areas,” she said, about government training programs that have been introduced this year. “But at the very low level, we see this huge opposition and resistance from employers.”

There have been cases of companies opening up roles for everyone, but bosses discouraged women from applying, Kupets said.

“This discrimination in the labor market comes from stereotypes, not only from men but also from women like mothers or mothers-in-law,” Kupets said.

Still, Kuzmina, the electrician, said she sees women working around her, and on social media.

“I was in the army but I realized that I could not be useful there anymore,” Kuzmina said. “But I want to help our country, our Ukraine. I could not just sit around.”

If you are from Ukraine and have a story to share about the war and how it has impacted your career, please reach out at: [email protected]