In 2021, the Ukrainian Women’s Congress in cooperation with the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women’s History carried out the research and educational project WOMEN’S STORIES OF LEADERSHIP.
This project tells the life stories and highlights the activities of outstanding women from various regions of Ukraine who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, under conditions of absent or severely restricted women’s rights, used the resources available to them to expand opportunities for women in their communities, contributed to improving the status of women in various spheres, and helped women advocate for their interests.
The project’s co-authors are researchers from different regions who reconstructed the life paths of the following remarkable women of the past and their efforts to advance women’s interests in their communities:
Zinaida Mirna — author Liubov Zhvanko
Vira Kankrina — author Iryna Savchenko
Praskeva Bahrynivska — author Iryna Levchuk
Valeriia Bilokonska — author Olha Nikolaienko
Olena Kysilevska — author Mariia Hnatiuk
Ivanna Blazhkevych — author Mariana Baidak
Anife Bodanyska — author Nataliia Malynovska
Mariia Khymynets — author Pavlo Leno
Tsetsiliia Klaften — author Vladyslava Moskalets
The project was led by Oksana Kis. Project coordinators on behalf of the UWC were Anna-Mariia Basauri Ziuzina and Iryna Drobovych. All project materials — videos about each historical figure, posters, postcards, and biographies — are available on the Ukrainian Women’s Congress website. We invite you to explore and use them!