Ukraine’s wartime digital transformation has opened new doors for women in tech, with female entrepreneurs and professionals stepping into roles once dominated by men. But without structural reforms, their gains risk fading once the crisis subsides.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine’s digital sector has opened new pathways for women, particularly as martial law has restricted most men of military age from leaving the country. This shift has created space for female tech entrepreneurs to lead, both at home and abroad, building on Ukraine’s relatively strong record of women in leadership—40 percent between 2017 and 2022, outpacing EU and global averages. Access to international funding and accelerator programs has enabled founders to establish startups in exile, contributing to the resilience of one of Eastern Europe’s fastest-growing tech hubs. Yet, women have historically made up only around 30 percent of managers in professional and technical fields, raising questions about whether this wartime shift will produce lasting structural change.

Government and international initiatives, such as the IT Generation project and partnerships with Women Go Tech, have expanded access to digital training and aimed to boost female participation in IT. These efforts are especially important given women’s dominant presence in Ukraine’s civil service, but underrepresentation in top positions, and the disproportionate economic burden women have carried since the war began. However, whether these programs will translate into long-term, equal representation in the tech sector remains uncertain. The crisis has accelerated progress, but sustaining momentum—and dismantling systemic barriers—will determine if women can secure a permanent and equal stake in Ukraine’s digital future.

Learning from the Past

Crises have long proved a double-edged sword for women in the workforce. When war breaks out or the world economy grinds to a halt, traditional structures collapse and new spaces emerge—often out of necessity. In these times, women step into critical roles once considered off limits: codebreakers, programmers, digital innovators, and more. Yet those windows have rarely remained open once stability has been restored. History shows us that unless policy, institutions, and culture are purposefully transformed, women’s upward mobility during periods of crisis remains a fleeting exception, rather than a foundation for lasting change.

The pattern is consistent throughout history. From the women of Bletchley Park and the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) programmers of WWII to the surge of women entering the digital workforce during COVID-19, moments of disruption have made visible what peacetime social norms often obscure: women’s adaptability and capability in highly skilled, technical roles. But without institutional support and structural reform, these breakthroughs remain temporary.

During WWII, Britain’s Bletchley Park became a hub of critical wartime intelligence. By 1945, women made up around 75 percent of its 10,000-strong workforce. They worked on codebreaking, data analysis, and machine operation—helping to decrypt German military communications. Their efforts helped to shorten the war by up to two years.

Yet their contribution remained classified for decades. Most were dismissed at war’s end under the Reinstatement of Civil Employment Act 1944, which prioritised returning male servicemen. Women left Bletchley without references due to the Official Secrets Act, unable to translate wartime work into long-term careers. Despite their high-level analytical work, many were labelled clerical assistants, secretaries, or typists. Indeed, they were much more.

Institutionally and economically, the post-war computing industry took shape without them. The University of Manchester’s early computer development—directly influenced by wartime cryptanalysis—was dominated by male researchers, while women’s contributions were written out of formal histories. What had been a brief period of visibility during crisis was erased in the return to normalcy.

In the United States, a similar erasure occurred with the six women who programmed the ENIAC programmable electronic computer (the world’s first). They developed its operating procedures, debugged its systems, and essentially invented software programming. And yet, when ENIAC was unveiled in 1946, their names were not mentioned. Publicity photos displayed them standing next to the machine as decorative attendants rather than its architects.

Like their British counterparts, they had been hired as “computers,” human calculators, and were never formally recognised as engineers. When the war ended, there were no career pipelines, promotions, or policy protections to retain their expertise. Instead, the computing industry that emerged in the 1950s and 60s was designed with men in mind—shaped by male-led companies like IBM and reinforced by the gendered provisions of the GI Bill (in America), which favoured male veterans for education and technical training.

The Ukraine crisis

A similar shift is occurring now in Ukraine. Even before Russia’s full-scale invasion, women had become increasingly prominent in the IT sector, supported by a strong national emphasis on STEM education and a growing tech industry. Since 2022, and with many men mobilised for military service, women have stepped into key roles across cybersecurity, e-governance, and digital public services. Platforms like Diia—Ukraine’s flagship e-governance app—have continued to operate and even expand during wartime, with women playing leading roles in maintaining functionality and public access.

Ukraine today finds itself at the intersection of crisis and transformation, with women integral to their digital resilience. As they assume roles in cybersecurity, digital public service and private-sector innovation, history warns us that even the most remarkable crisis-era inclusions can fade if not reinforced by structural change.

What remains unclear—and is a critical area for future study—is how the broad economic, social and political shifts caused by the war are reshaping gender roles in Ukraine’s digital ecosystem. Will women be placeholders until the men return, or are they becoming embedded? Will women’s contributions in cybersecurity and digital innovation be recognised in the national recovery framework? Will donor and government policies prioritise gender equity in rebuilding?

Without deliberate planning, the risk is that women’s labour will again be treated as provisional, one that filled a gap rather than a permanent pillar of Ukraine’s future.

*This analysis forms part of a larger research project based at RMIT University on transformation of women in Ukraine’s digital society.

Nikki Trewin is a graduate of RMIT University with a Bachelor of International Studies and a former Australian Outlook Assistant Editor Intern at the AIIA. You can find her on LinkedIn here.

This article is published under a Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.