The glass ceiling, the trust vacuum, and gender distribution. How are Ukrainian women changing the defense tech industry?

Leading Ukrainian businesses and innovators gathered in Kyiv on October 24–25 for the RESTART technology conference.

AIN summarizes the results of the discussion on the role of women in defense technology and provides more details on the thoughts and plans of the participants — women who are shaping Ukraine’s defense sector.

Participants in the discussion

Olesya Dyachyshyn — CEO and co-founder of LifeSaver SIM — an educational platform and mobile simulator for training specialized and pre-medical care skills. 

Viktoriia Yaremchuk — CEO of the Ukrainian-Estonian company Farsight Vision, which develops a platform for battlefield reconnaissance and recently raised funds at Brave1 Defense Tech Valley.

Maria Berlinska — Head of the Victory Drones project for the technological strengthening of Ukraine’s security and defense forces, co-founder of the Dignitas Charitable Foundation.

The discussion was moderated by Valentina Dudko, Head of PR and Communications at MITS Capital.

What the statistics say

According to Valentina Dudko, historically, the tech sector and defense industry have been considered “closed men’s clubs.” However, figures for the broader IT sector show rapid progress. 

• According to estimates by the Ukrainian IT Cluster, as of August last year, 40% of specialists in Ukraine’s technology sector (over 300,000) were women. And this figure is only growing.

• In particular, women account for 34% of C-level positions. It should be noted that the greatest acceleration in gender parity occurred in 2022, indicating that full-scale war acted as a catalyst for social mobility and the destruction of old stereotypes.

• Women head at least two large DefTech accelerators in Ukraine. They are also leaders in one of the largest funds and angel syndicates. In addition, one of the largest educational and advocacy ecosystems, whose scale cannot be described in a single sentence, was also founded and is headed by a woman.

At various levels — from policymaking and financing to direct training and advocacy — women already play central roles in shaping the future of Ukrainian defense.

Is there a glass ceiling in Ukrainian Defense Tech?

A glass ceiling is an invisible, formally unmarked barrier that hinders career growth by limiting the advancement of individuals (mostly women) to higher positions, regardless of their professional qualities.

The participants in the discussion emphasized that barriers for women in DefTech begin long before they enter the industry. According to Maria Berlinska, “the glass ceiling probably starts with a glass floor.” This concept describes the process of early social programming.

Berlinska metaphorically calls this social programming “viral software.” As a result, men’s emotions are suppressed, which, as noted, correlates with one of the highest male mortality rates in the world. Women, on the other hand, are blocked from participating in areas traditionally considered masculine, such as defense, engineering, and technology.

At the same time, full-scale war has become a powerful social tool in the fight against established algorithms.

“War is a very cool X-ray that reveals people. If you are lying somewhere wounded, God forbid, you don’t care whether a guy or a girl helps you. It is important to you that you are helped,” Maria added.

Historical education also provides important arguments in favor of female leadership in technology. Maria Berlinska cited the example of Ada Lovelace(daughter of the poet Byron), who became the world’s first programmer by writing the first program for Charles Babbage’s machine back in 1842.

In addition, creating accessible entry points into DefTech is critical for attracting talent, regardless of gender. Maria emphasized that her project (including the DGNTAS fund and Support Center) has become an “entry point” into defense for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, having already trained about a quarter of a million specialists in various programs.

Trust vacuum 

Participants in the DefTech sector face not so much outright blocking as increased scrutiny, which Victoria Yaremchuk compares to an “aquarium” or “microscope.” In the technology and defense environment, women are required to constantly prove that their efforts and skills are sufficient for the job.

“Whatever you say, it is subject to doubt. And it is very difficult for women to gain trust. Not only are you scrutinized, but you are also kept in a greenhouse. It is warm and comfortable there, you are fed, but you are in a vacuum,” Olesya noted.

Maria Berlinska added that back in 2014, female volunteers had to be “twice as good to be treated as equals.”

About gender parity

The experience of companies headed by Olesya Dyachyshyn (LifeSaver SIM) and Viktoriia Yaremchuk (Farsight Vision) demonstrates that gender equality in the defense sector is not a utopia, but a reality. 

“Our team is now 60% women, and we are proud of that. There are 35 people in the team, and women hold a wide variety of positions, from data scientist to sales,” Viktoriia shared in a comment to AIN.

Viktoriia also suggested that the public image of a female CEO serves as a “discovery” and encourages more women to apply for jobs more boldly, as they see a successful female role model.

Olesya Dyachyshyn also confirmed that women at LifesaverSIM hold at least half of all positions in the company.

At the same time, there are still few women in conventional technology fields within the defense technology sector (e.g., artillery) due to cultural and traditional constraints in higher education and parenting practices.

Read more: Reverse Pitching. What to do to avoid hearing “no” from investors — a guide for startups

Companies’ plans for the future

In a conversation with AIN, the panelists also shared details about what they are currently working on.

• LifesaverSIM will participate in Web Summit 2025 in Lisbon (November 10–13). The delegation will consist of two people. The team’s mission at the event will be primarily to expand its network of contacts and media presence in the European information space. Funding from IT Arena ($15,000) was received in April–May, although it was obtained in September 2024. These funds, together with UAH 2 million from Brave, were spent on developing the ILS course and a decompression needle, which made it possible to release the CLS course for the military.

• Farsight Vision plans to shift its focus from digital twins and training neural networks to recognize objects and anomalies to using accumulated knowledge for better planning of defense actions in 3D space. This will include simulations and execution planning, as well as Hill Chain automation by combining individual fragments of their capabilities.

• Maria Berlinska emphasized that she now believes in cognitive technologies — changing society’s “software” through education and examples, just as she believed in drones 11 years ago. She is currently working on a project that will enable Ukrainians to fight on the front lines of mentality. 

Overcoming gender stereotypes and achieving parity in Defense Tech is a complex but necessary process that requires changing cultural attitudes, education, and demonstrating successful examples.

The outbreak of full-scale war has been more of a catalyst for these changes than a direct cause, showing that competence and leadership do not depend on gender.

This material was created as part of the RESTART conference. The event was made possible thanks to the event partners: Molfar, PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Sens bookstore, idealers, Tvoye Kolo, S-PROF, Foundation Coffee Roasters, Škoda, Headway Inc, Everstar, CLUST, Megapolis+, Vizia, Morshynska, Gulliver, Bolt, Greendezeen, Kooperativ, Techosystem, and DEV Challenge.