In every country around the world, there is a division of male and females in the workforce. There could be practical reasons, but in reality, males typically go to work and make more money than women, while women look after the households. There are traditional reasons for this, if you consider the time of hunters and gathers, men went out to find and kill an animal for food (although just because they went out, does not mean they always came back with game).
It was the gathers or women looking after the children who found berries and whatever to eat that kept the families from starving. Later, men looked after domestic animals and did the bulk of the farming because it was heavy physical labor. Times have changed and technology makes it easier for both sexes to look after animals and do the planting or work on a computer.

In an article by Constant Meheut of the New York Times News Service, a country that has had a very tradition breakdown of men working and women and home is changing. The country of Ukraine is a war with Russia, which means many of the men have been drafted and sent to the front lines. For the rest of the economy, it still needs to function, and the country has been looking towards women as a solution.

In the article, DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company has seen 1,000 male workers drafted into the military or about a 1/5 of the workforce. It has hired 330 women.

Ukraine is a country where women were not encouraged to work outside the home, however the pay is good and the pension is generous. Women who did not imagine working, have changed their minds and are doing the work. For women, the biases are long held and include women are second class and less reliable workers, women cannot do physical work; the roles are considered too complicated for them such as driving a trolley bus.

For women in Britain and the US – many of them remember or heard about the iconic posters of Rosie the Riveter during male shortage of WWI and WW II.

In the Ukraine, 3/4’s of Ukrainian employers have experienced labor shortages. Before the war, 47% of women worked according to the World Bank. Since the war, about 13% or 1.5 females have left the country. For the ones that have stayed in the country, more opportunities have opened up, but the country still has a labor shortage.

In the mining industry, there were no women because the law banned women from working in mines. Since the war, the law has been changed and there are women miners. One of the women working says for now she is staying because the schools are open and where would she go? In every job, people need supports and as long as they exist or made stronger, the longer the person stays.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, we all have biases. Sometimes it easier to see them in a different country, but things can change, and it can be for the better for everyone. In your investing, you will have and see bias and it is good to know what it is. Sometimes it is regional companies, sometimes it is not the competition in the industry you worked for, but we have biases. Over time and earning profits in an industry and you will slowly overcome some of the biases.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.