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37-year-old Victoria Torop struggles to start an old Belarus tractor. At first, she has trouble shifting into first gear. She yanks the gear lever back and forth until finally it fits. The ancient 130-horsepower engine roars into action as she takes off for a spin through the tomato fields on a farm in southern Ukraine.
Torop, who lives in Snihurivka in the Mykolaiv region, which had 12,000 inhabitants before the invasion, is just one of eight women on this farm who are enrolled in an educational program to learn how to drive a farm tractor. The United Nations Development Fund is financing the program, and local companies eager to find new employees are anxiously watching the results. The Ukrainian army needs more men to hold off Russian advances in eastern Donbas, and most local communities are having trouble handling the region’s normal workload as more men are sent to the front line.
“I need to support my country, but I also don’t see why women can’t drive tractors,” says Torop.
“One farmer was surprised when he saw me driving sometime back,” she adds. “He said I was driving better than most men. It is a myth that only men can do this. Women can do more than just give birth to children.”
Agriculture is not the only sector that’s experiencing change. A Ukrainian company, DTEK, currently hires women to work underground in its coal mines. In Kyiv, women are learning how to drive the capital’s underground metro subway line. Before the war, only men were trusted to do that. Women are even being hired as security guards in supermarkets.
“Not every woman can do this job, or even wants to do it,” says Torop. “But plenty of women can handle it, and some are even better than men. Others will stay at home and cook, which is also fine.”
Why Not?
The Russians occupied Snihurivka in 2022. As a result a number of buildings were reduced to rubble and many of the fields still have explosive mines. Tractors have begun tilling the fields that are considered safe. The local economy depends heavily on a few large agricultural companies. There are no factories here, so farming is the main source of income.
“We also teach women how to fix engines,” Anatoly Kosmyk, a program instructor says. “You can see, it is filthy here. Some of the tractors are very old.” Kosmyk smiles as Torop, followed by other women tractor drivers, passes by.
A number of local farmers, who find the change in scenery exciting, eagerly greet the women drivers on their way to work.
“If they really want to learn, I don’t see why they can’t,” Kosmyk continues. “It’s not for everyone. Some women feel that it is just too hard, and too dirty. We work from sunrise to sundown. We even have days during harvest where farmers work 24 hours a day.”
“In Ukraine, we used to think that women shouldn’t do this kind of work because they give birth to children. That is beginning to change,” says Kosmyk.
A shortage of men led to similar changes in Britain and the United States during World War II.
Women suddenly found themselves doing jobs in gritty factories that until then had been exclusively reserved for men. The women often turned out to be better educated and more effective than many of their male counterparts. That changed the public perception of women’s capabilities. Lyudmyla Komisarova, the deputy for education for the Mykolaiv region, hopes that similar changes will take hold in Ukraine.
“These days, no one talks about the roles of men and women. This is wartime and everyone has to work to help the economy. Our whole mentality is changing,” says Komisarova. She adds that the eight women learning how to drive farm tractors are only the beginning. Many similar projects have been initiated around Ukraine.
“We see a wave of women who want to change their profession and learn something new,” she says.
A Bite of Freedom
The sun is shining when Torop parks her tractor and stands in front of it, proudly waiting for WhoWhatWhy to take her photograph. She tries to look cool with the blue tractor in the background. She has a 17-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter at home.
“The sad thing is that a lot of our soldiers are not going to be alive to come home after this war is over,” she says. “Many of those who do come back will have scars, both on their bodies and in their minds. If we want to rebuild this country, women are going to have to step up and do it themselves.”
“We have a lot of tough women in Ukraine,” Torop continues. “When this area was under Russian occupation, everyone told me: ‘Take your children and go away. Find somewhere safe.’ They didn’t understand that I don’t want to live anywhere else. This is my country.”
Nineteen-year-old Karina stands next to her, eating a tomato. She is the youngest of the students and she is eager to finish her training in October so that she can start working full-time. Her boyfriend is fighting on the frontline, and she wants to do her part.
“I don’t believe that it takes a man to drive a tractor,” she says. “It’s crazy.” Karina is convinced that it is old-fashioned to believe that a woman can’t do anything that a man can do.
Karina also survived the Russian occupation. “If we could live without water, electricity, and have Russian soldiers running everywhere, we can do this,” she says.
A Gradual Change
Maria Gutsman, the team leader for the Inclusive Development, Recovery, and Peacebuilding portfolio for the United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine, says that the UNDP provides training in carpentry, plumbing, lumber processing, electric wiring, welding, locksmithing, and other sectors. Many participants are women.
“Historically, many of Ukraine’s professions have been assigned exclusively to men or women,” she says. “Cultural norms and stereotypes reinforced the divisions. The Russian invasion disrupted these traditional roles. Now, skills and qualifications count more than gender.”
She adds that technological developments have made some professions less physically demanding, which makes it easier for women to handle many jobs.
“This shift is not only breaking down barriers for women, it’s also fostering a more inclusive and diverse workforce, which is crucial for the country’s long-term economic recovery and growth,” Gutsman points out. She sees similarities between what is happening in Ukraine today and the social shift that took place in Great Britain during World War II.
“In this part of Europe, the Second World War similarly disrupted traditional gender roles, forcing women into the workforce in unprecedented numbers,” she explains.
Gutsman notes that the phenomenon reversed itself in Europe once the war was over and men left the army and reclaimed their pre-war jobs. She thinks that Ukraine could be different. “This could be a crucial moment to break [from history] and create a more equitable future,” she says.
Not for Everyone
Back in the tomato fields, Karina and Torop are certainly eager to see lasting change. However, not all women are ready to take over from men. In a coal mine in eastern Ukraine, 35-year-old Natalia, who currently works in a coal mine nearly 900 feet underground, says she is eager to help now that the country needs her, but she doesn’t think she’ll continue the job once the war is over. The conditions are simply too hard.
“If our men return from the front, it’s better for women to stay home and wait for their husbands,” she says. “This is tough physical work, and it needs a man who is strong. I am sure it is going to affect our health sooner or later.” Natalia has children at home.
