What We Can Learn from Ukrainian Women this International Women's Day and My "Ask" of Russian Women

There is no celebration of International Women’s Day today in Ukraine, but I can’t stop thinking about the Ukrainian women I’ve come to know.

My first exposure to these resilient women came on a snowy, frigid day in February 2017, when I arrived at a Ukrainian university in a small town to speak to a group of women about building their careers and economic self-sufficiency. I arrived to find that there was no electricity and no heat in the building. I thought for sure that the small business owners, professionals, students and community leaders would turn around and leave when they walked into the cold room, lit only by the fading sunlight.?

But not a single one of them did.

Instead, they kept their coats on and huddled closer together.

As I told them stories of courageous women and offered models about how business women around the world succeed, they listened, shared their experiences, asked questions and encouraged each other.

Their energy and hope radiated. The light of their determination warmed us up to the very end – until it got so dark we could no longer see.

After that first visit, I went back again the following year to speak in several cities in both the western and eastern parts of the country, including in the Donbas region, close to the Russian border, and I have had virtual engagements each year since then.

I was hooked on the light, warmth and strength of these women, and I wanted to keep us learning from each other. With support from the U.S. State Department, our embassy in Ukraine and?America House, my book?UNDETERRED: The Six Success Habits of Women in Emerging Economies was translated into Ukrainian.

But, having a book to guide them wasn’t enough for these striving, resilient Ukrainian women. They wanted more. Working with America House, we designed a career advancement program called Window to Success. The national program, facilitated by women, has been implemented in nine cities throughout the country. In the words of Tetyana Strelchenko, who was recently promoted to Director of America House, Kyiv:

“For six months, professional women all over Ukraine read UNDETERRED and practiced the six habits of success. We met once a month and discussed our professional and personal challenges, hopes, goals, and aspirations. We shared our internal dreads, like our fear of failure, and even more daunting, our fear of success.”

I have stayed in touch and developed friendships with several of these women. We talk not just about our professional lives, but also about our families and our dreams. My admiration for their strength and resolve, in the face of fierce odds, to create a better future has only deepened.

This is why I am anxious, sad and angry today. As I see what is unfolding in Ukraine, I see real people…women who have come so far and face losing everything. I cannot imagine how cold and dark their days must feel.

Up until the night before this most recent senseless Russian invasion, on February 23, 2022, Ukrainian women still wanted more and the current cohort of Windows to Success gathered virtually. Their facilitator shared

“The participants were so excited about the prospect of coming together for this journey of reflection and discovery every other week for the next 12 weeks. I was really impressed by the accomplishments of the women and how clearly they articulated their goals for the sessions. Then the following night, Putin's renewed invasion began.”

According to many experts, the odds of stopping Putin are very slim. Several believe that one of the only possible long shots for ending the war would come if the Russian people stage broad, large demonstrations and protests.

While the role of women in formal peace negotiations is extremely low, when women are involved, they significantly boost the achievement of peace. We can look to Northern Ireland, Liberia, the Philippines and Colombia as examples.

History sometimes offers us hope when we know it.

The idea to make Women’s Day international came from a woman called Clara Zetkin who suggested the idea in 1910 at an International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen. There were 100 women there, from 17 countries, and they agreed on her suggestion unanimously. But, it was Russian women who actually?formalized the day,?when their courageous strike in 1917, demanding "bread and peace" in four days forced theTsar to abdicate and gave them the right to vote.

Russian women also played a key role in ending the Kremlin’s violent repression in Chechnya in the 1990’s. On International Women’s Day, March 8, 1995, a group called The Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia held an anti-war gathering in Moscow that led to marches and direct action that eventually helped end that conflict the following year.

I recognize it’s very easy for me to say this sitting in my own warm house, but

• I hope that Russian women will all find a way to go on strike.
• I hope that Russian women elites, the mothers, wives and daughters of oligarchs, will speak up alongside them.
• I hope that they remember the power their great grandmothers seized in 1917.
• I hope that Russian women will find the strength this International Women’s Day to tell Putin “NYET, no more! We will not pay this price.”
• I hope that they use their roles in business, community and their homes to demand peace for their Ukrainian cousins and themselves.

I hope the rest of us find ways to support them, and join them in solidarity.

I hope that in some miraculous way, the women of Russia find the courage to make history again.