Experiences of war and women’s changing roles in Ukraine

The document reports on a survey of 1,354 individuals in unoccupied Ukraine, finding that while women have increasingly taken on roles in the military and humanitarian aid due to wartime necessity, societal acceptance for these roles is generally higher during the war than in envisioned post-war scenarios. Conversely, support for women in non-military leadership roles is higher for the post-war period. The data also quantifies women's direct participation in the defense effort, noting that 5% of women surveyed had served in combat roles and 30% provided non-combatant support.

• Respondents perceived that women have taken on new roles during the war to a moderate degree, with the most notable increases seen in humanitarian aid work (58%), joining the workforce (52%), and active-duty military service (49%).
• Societal acceptance for women in several roles is significantly higher during wartime than in a post-war scenario, specifically for active-duty military, military leadership, humanitarian aid work, and both unpaid healthcare and care work.
• In contrast to military roles, there is statistically significant higher support for women occupying non-military leadership positions, such as in business, civil society, or politics, in a post-war context compared to during the war.
• Regarding actual participation in the defense of Ukraine, approximately 11% of all respondents served in a combat role, with a gender breakdown of 17% for men and 5% for women.
• A significant portion of the population provided non-combatant support to the war effort, including 30% of women and 36% of men who reported aiding victims and troops.

APA

Skoog, E., Bosheim, S., & Tryggestad, T. L. (2025). Experiences of war and women’s changing roles in Ukraine. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/d35dcbc5-14aa-4422-8406-0f891818fc39/Skoog Bosheim Tryggestad - GPS 2 2025.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Skoog, Eric, Stine Bosheim, and Torunn L. Tryggestad. Experiences of war and women’s changing roles in Ukraine. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2025. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/d35dcbc5-14aa-4422-8406-0f891818fc39/Skoog Bosheim Tryggestad - GPS 2 2025.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Skoog |first1=Eric |last2=Bosheim |first2=Stine |last3=Tryggestad |first3=Torunn L. |title=Experiences of war and women’s changing roles in Ukraine |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=2025 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/d35dcbc5-14aa-4422-8406-0f891818fc39/Skoog Bosheim Tryggestad - GPS 2 2025.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{skoog2025experiences, author = {Skoog, Eric and Bosheim, Stine and Tryggestad, Torunn L.}, title = {{Experiences of war and women’s changing roles in Ukraine}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2025}, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/d35dcbc5-14aa-4422-8406-0f891818fc39/Skoog Bosheim Tryggestad - GPS 2 2025.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }