UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Apr 11 — The Kharkiv subway’s press service reported that 26-year-old Anastasiia Mazurkova, a Kharkiv subway driver, became one of five participants in the Vogue UA project “The Wind of Changes.” The project tells the stories of women taking up professions that are considered “male.”

According to the State Employment Service, due to the lack of male workers, partially caused by their conscription into military service, there are “certain difficulties” with filling jobs that are “traditionally popular among men” (drivers, builders, welders, electricians).

For now, Anastasiia is the only woman in Ukraine who can drive a subway train. Despite formal gender parity, with 43% of Kharkiv subway workers being women, there is no interest in this profession among Kharkiv women,” wrote Vogue UA. 

Women in Ukraine gained the opportunity to become subway drivers only in 2018, when the Health Ministry canceled the Soviet ban on 450 professions women weren’t allowed to occupy.

Vogue UA wrote that Anastasiia has worked in the Kharkiv subway since 2020. Earlier, she used to watch out for passengers who left the wagons and signal to train drivers to go to the Saltivska subway station. In 2023, she decided to join the subway drivers’ team.

“Maybe I wouldn’t have dared if the war hadn’t started. I thought: if you really want something, when else but now? So I risked it,” said Anastasiia.

Ukraine also created online training for gender equality in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The need for such training arose due to the growing number of women in the army.

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