Women Helped Ukraine Survive, Re-emerge

Women, family, and culture played key roles in the preservation and rebirth of Ukraine, said Kateryna Yushchenko, ’86, wife of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and head of the Ukraine 3000 foundation.

“For many centuries, women have been essential in keeping Ukraine from disappearing altogether,” Yushchenko told the University of Chicago Women’s Business Group at the October 6 Women’s Summit at the Mid-America Club. “They did this, despite the greatest odds: centuries of war, repression, famine, and trying times when they were arrested or killed for defending their cultural heritage, language, religion, and way of life.”

Yushchenko said she was not surprised when Ukrainians gathered on Independence Square in Kiev last November to protest the outcome of the country’s recent election and the attempted assassination of her husband. In its 14 years of independence, a new middle class had emerged with a civil society of entrepreneurs and business people, she said. “I strongly believe they prevailed because behind them were centuries of women who preserved for them their national identity and moral values,” Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko’s studies at the GSB taught her many things she uses in her foundation today, working largely through local nongovernmental organizations to foster the development of a tradition of charity in Ukraine.

“One of the reasons I chose Chicago over other business schools is its strong emphasis on the role of the economy, regulation of the economy and public policy,” she said. “It was an honor for me to study under George Stigler. That was one of my goals. Much of that has affected how I look at Ukraine’s development. Many of the things I studied in management and marketing at the University of Chicago have become very important to the work I’m doing now at the foundation.”

— Phil Rockrohr