Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine’s coal industry- once among the biggest in Europe, has seen decades of decline. So, women are stepping up to take on the challenge of working in mines, a field that was previously solely dominated by men.
Coal mining has been an important industry in Ukraine for a long time. After more than 1000s of its workers went to fight against Russia, a coal mining enterprise in eastern Ukraine suffered a huge staff shortage.
Therefore, to cater to the problem of staff shortage, it allowed women to take up jobs underground for the first time in its history. Hundreds of women accepted the offer and are now working in Ukraine’s coal mines to fill staff shortages caused by the war.
The women working as a technicians 470 meters (1,542 feet) below ground opine that they took up the jobs as the war started and there were no other jobs. The men being on the warfront, women in Ukraine are left behind forced to look after their families and children alone.
They are fighting the heavy battery lids and unpleasnt steams at the place of work underground to feel a sense of duty and also to do their bit for those who have gone to fight.
As per the reports, around 3,000 of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company’s 20,000 mine workers are fighting.
Although some women worked in mines prior to the war, the government forbade them from doing so because the work was too physically demanding, a policy that had been in place since the Soviet era.
Following the repeal of the ban during WWII, approximately 400 women now work underground at DTEK mines, accounting for only 2.5% of the total subterranean workforce.
