One of the significant outcomes of this transition has been gender inequality. Regardless of the fact that women in Ukraine achieved exceptionally high educational levels during the Soviet era, paradoxically, they appear to be losing ground in just the areas where their educational levels should confer equal advantages and opportunities. However, only 5 percent of women hold position of authority as managers, directors or heads of departments. The transformation taking place in Ukraine is threefold. It has affected the economic, social and political spheres.
Women suffer discrimination in the labor market.
They constitute over 70 percent of the unemployed. The income level of women is one-third less than men in Ukraine and this gap is increasing. The erosion of family benefits and the child-care infrastructure supported in the past by the state has substantially increased women's workload within the family. These factors negatively impact upon the well-being of women and their children. These figures would have been more pronounced if the migration of the population from other former republics of the USSR had not been taken into consideration.