Kis, O. (Ed.). (2025). Zhinochi istorii liderstva v Ukraini: kinets XIX – pochatok XX st. [Women’s Stories of Leadership in Ukraine: Late 19th – Early 20th Century]. Stepurina Publishing.
Annotation: This volume presents the lives and illuminates the work of fifteen women from various regions of Ukraine who, at the turn of the twentieth century — in conditions of absent or severely limited rights for women — drew on the resources available to them to create new opportunities for the women of their communities, advanced the position of women across multiple spheres (education, labor, health care, social services, political participation), and supported women from poorer social strata in realizing their potential, leading dignified lives, providing for their needs, and taking part in addressing the concerns of their communities. These women came from different ethnic backgrounds and held differing religious and political views; they varied in age and social standing, and not all of them were involved in the organized women’s movement. What united them was one thing: they devoted their lives to advancing Ukrainian women’s access to education, employment, medical and social services, and decision-making.
Each figure’s life is reconstructed on the basis of a substantial body of historical sources, including letters, diaries, memoirs, official documents, the writings and statements of the women themselves, and press materials of the period. The book also features rare documentary photographs.
The book will be of value to researchers in women’s history and the history of philanthropy, to students and educators, to activists of women’s organizations, and for use in regional history and educational work.
The volume was prepared in partnership between the Ukrainian Women’s Congress and the Ukrainian Association for Research in Women’s History.
The official launch of the edited volume took place on October 23, 2025, in Kyiv as part of the Ukrainian Women’s Congress.
Reviewers:
Alla Shvets, Doctor of Philological Sciences (habilitation equivalent), Deputy Director for Research at the Franko Institute, NAS of Ukraine
Larysa Buriak, Doctor of Historical Sciences (habilitation equivalent), Leading Research Fellow at the Institute of Biographical Studies, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine