Ukrainian Women on the Front Lines but Not in the Headlines

  • Citation: Kassova, Luba, and Xanthe Scharff. “Ukrainian Women on the Front Lines but Not in the Headlines.” Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy, March 20, 2022.
    • Topics:
    • Country and Regional Studies
    • Keywords:
    • Ukraine
    • women
    • war
    • gender bias
    • role of women

Just as women reporters face unique barriers to safety, work, and life amid war, so do Ukrainian women—yet we rarely get their story. Women’s voices constitute less than a quarter (23 percent) of the total experts, protagonists, or sources quoted in global digital news about the war in Ukraine, according to our analysis of the GDELT news monitoring database. Although Ukrainian women and children feature in a fraction of stories, these stories are often emotionally engaging and therefore more memorable, especially to readers who are accustomed to news that disproportionately features and sources men.