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Fighting to be seen: how Ukrainian and Russian professional women are securing their place in public

In Ukraine and Russia, civil society and professional associations are helping women experts to raise their profile in the public arena.

Fighting to be seen: how Ukrainian and Russian professional women are securing their place in public
Launch of "She is an Expert" project, Moscow, 2019 - Image: Anna Todich. Published with permission
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“A 32-year-old blonde woman is now acting head of Kharkiv regional administration.”

“Two hundred police officers are now under the command of a slim beauty.”

In Ukrainian media, professional women are always presented in terms of their age and looks — specialists in information security are transformed into “pretty strangers” and “beautiful blondes”, and women serving in the military are inevitably described as “slim and pretty”.