This year, 59% of new businesses in Ukraine were started by women. First Lady Olena Zelenska emphasized this during her speech at the eighth Ukrainian Women’s Congress in Kyiv. The theme of this year’s event is “Women’s Potential: New Roles, New Quality.”
The congress participants discussed how women's potential is helping to overcome war-related challenges and how it could become an essential component in the country's future reconstruction and modernization.
Olena Zelenska added that, according to the Ministry of Economy, the share of women participating in the Own Business grant program has increased to 48% this year. Women now hold 22% of leadership positions in Ukrainian diplomatic missions, and, according to the Ministry of Defense, nearly 20% of all volunteers are women.
“It’s important to acknowledge that this potential often comes at a high cost. This year alone, I had the honor of meeting incredible women, including teachers. For example, Larysa Fesenko, who endured 45 days in a Russian prison cell and returned to her school in the Kharkiv region after liberation. Or Olena Vlezko, who continued teaching children remotely from her parents’ basement in Myropillia, near the border with the aggressor state, amid constant shelling,” the First Lady shared.
At the same time, she emphasized that, despite the trials of war, all Ukrainians have an opportunity for post-traumatic growth.
“Not everything happening now is holding us back. Alongside our traumas and pain, sometimes even as a result of them, there are opportunities. And we all—women and men alike—need to believe in this if we want to build a strong society,” Olena Zelenska concluded.
