Of the ten million people displaced by the war in Ukraine, over 90 percent have been women and children. Even before the war and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the women’s employment rate had been 11 percent lower than the employment rate for men. As a result of forced displacement, women in particular have struggled to find employment. Only 43 percent have found sources of employment as they relocate within Ukraine and outside of the country, again lower than the 58 percent of men who have found opportunities for income. Without employment, women face impossible barriers in accessing vital resources, such as food, water, and housing. While men are deployed and fighting, it is vital that women have access to income and ways to support their families.

While men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been told to remain in Ukraine to fight, women are responsible for supporting wartime efforts, caring for elderly family members, caring for children, managing households, and more, all while managing finances and generating income. For women that have remained in Ukraine to hold up the country, the war has rattled the health care systems Ukraine had in place. As such, women have significantly less access to life saving care for their reproductive health needs. It has become common for pregnant women to lack access to crucial prenatal and postnatal care services or even lack access to safe places to deliver their children. With 265,000 Ukrainian women currently pregnant, the disruptions to their care could have potentially fatal consequences.

A study conducted by UN Women and CARE International stated that war in Ukraine has exacerbated gender inequalities in the country. As the conflict escalates and more women are displaced internally or abroad, one in five women have fallen victim to sexual violence. The UN study further analyzes Ukraine during this crisis and found that 82 percent of women feel that the war has increased gender based violence. The increasing instances of sex trafficking and the exploitation of displaced women in Ukraine by gangs is also a rising concern for the safety of women. When people, rather than official organizations, offer resources and shelter to Ukrainian women, they sometimes expect services in exchange, which has been a large contributor to the growing number of human trafficking cases as well.

Despite the toll the Russia-Ukraine conflict has taken on Ukrainian women, they have still taken on critical work without receiving credit. As many men have been sent to fight, women have had to tackle a wide range of new duties crucial to the war effort. They have organized countless logistic efforts, created camouflage netting for their soldiers, cooked for millions without access to food or electricity, and organized efforts to fundraise for their military. With individuals such as transport car drivers Yevheniia Ustinova and Maria Stetsiuk leading efforts to help the war, women are increasingly joining forces to do their part. Women have also been demining landmines in Ukraine and repairing cities wrecked by the war. Ukrainian women have taken on a long list of roles from firefighting to security and defense jobs, while they also join the military to participate in combat. While they have not been given recognition for their efforts, these women have been holding up their country as they take over running civilian life in the absence of most men in the country, while continuing to run their households.

Ukrainian women have become the backbone of their country, yet are close to unnoticed in foreign aid efforts. With the particularly heavy burden falling on Ukrainian women, foreign countries seeking to provide aid should begin to focus on specifically supporting women’s rights and organizations led by women. When aid is cut, women are the ones who bear the brunt of the affliction. Financial support has historically and presently always been given last as a contribution to women’s reproductive health care, and as such, these areas are the first to lose funding in times of crisis, as is happening now.

Reproductive health care facilities have among the greatest impacts on whether women live or die. Consequently, it is absolutely crucial that foreign countries sending financial and humanitarian aid recognize the manners in which women in particular fall victim to the effects of crises and war. A 2020 report found that past humanitarian aid strategies have only properly used 12.9 percent of the 3.2 million USD estimated to be necessary for protection against gender- based violence in Ukraine. As well as aid for reproductive healthcare and gender-based violence, Ukrainian women are in urgent need of supplies. Food, military supplies, and money have been sent to the men in combat, but not nearly enough has been provided to the women still inside the country who have been supporting their families and organizing the military’s logistic efforts.

To develop the most effective aid responses and humanitarian plans to provide Ukraine, it is imperative to grasp exactly how the impacts of war vary by gender in order to meet the needs of far more Ukrainian victims. Without aid responses that factor in gender based evidence on the differential effects of war, the delivery of humanitarian services to Ukraine will not meet the needs of the unsung heroes of this war who are risking their lives in the face of one of the greatest struggles of the century.

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