Recently, YC.Market analysts studied the dynamics of registrations of individual entrepreneurs (IEOs) in Ukraine among women over the past 5 years, and found that 2024 was the period of the highest growth in the number of female entrepreneurs. However, female entrepreneurship in Ukraine includes not only IEOs, but also companies in the form of legal entities – business partnerships, where the scale of the business, management structure and impact on the economy are fundamentally different.

After updating the financial reporting data of companies for 2024, we decided to conduct an in-depth study of the role and place of women in this segment: the distribution of companies by ownership, industries with the largest presence of female founders, the level of participation of women among the beneficiaries of the largest enterprises, their role in key management positions and the general dynamics of women’s activity in creating companies over the past year.

Key findings:

1. Men continue to control the majority of commercial companies (58–63%), but the share of companies owned exclusively by women is gradually increasing (from 18.2% in 2024 to almost 20% as of 01.01.2025).
2. Women are most actively represented in industries focused on professional services, consumer demand and human interaction – the highest share of companies founded exclusively by women is observed in audit and accounting (48.5%), tourism (33.5%) and education (32.8%).
3. In the top 1000 by revenue, only 7.4% of companies have exclusively female beneficiaries.
4. Women dominate the position of chief accountant in the largest companies (73%), although their share has decreased slightly compared to previous years.
5. Throughout the year, there was a steady positive trend in company registration by women, with their share gradually increasing to 27.5% among all new commercial legal entities.

Ukrainian business is still predominantly male

As of the beginning of 2024, statistics show a significant male predominance among owners of Ukrainian commercial companies. About 58% of all enterprises have exclusively male participants or ultimate beneficiaries. For comparison, only 18.2% of companies are owned by women (about 173.5 thousand out of ~954 thousand companies analyzed). Another about 14.6% of companies can be classified as mixed in composition – there are both women and men among the beneficiaries (each with a share of 25% or more). Finally, in ~9.2% of cases, information on the gender composition of the owners was missing or uncertain.

Interestingly, there have been some changes over the year. As of the beginning of 2025, the share of companies with exclusively female owners has increased to almost 20%, while the share of mixed ones has decreased to ~9.7%. The share of exclusively male companies, on the contrary, has increased to ~63%. This may indicate both an increase in the number of female businesses and structural changes in the accounting of owners (in particular, a decrease in the “undetermined” category). However, the general picture remains unchanged: the majority of businesses in Ukraine are controlled by men, although the female presence is gradually increasing.

What industries do women most often choose?

The role of women as founders of companies varies significantly depending on the sector of the economy. We present the top 10 industries by the share of companies where the founders are exclusively women (with a share in the authorized capital of more than 25%). Additionally, data on mixed founding (jointly by men and women) is provided, which allows us to assess how women realize themselves independently or in partnership.

• Audit and accounting: 48.5% of companies are founded exclusively by women (2,841 companies). This is the highest percentage among all sectors of the Ukrainian economy — such a concentration can be explained by the significant presence of women in financial and analytical professions, as well as their high qualifications in this area.
• Tourism: 33.5% of companies in the industry were founded by women (4,708 companies), which indicates the significant role of female entrepreneurship in the tourism sector.
• Educational institutions: 32.8% of companies were founded by women (2,451 companies). Another 13.9% have both men and women among the founders at the same time — a high percentage of mixed founding indicates the spread of partnership management models in this industry.
• Catering: 26.2% (4,757 companies) are founded exclusively by women, however, in 12.4% of enterprises in the industry, the founders are representatives of both sexes.
• Light industry: 26.0% of companies (2,961 companies) are founded exclusively by women, while another 9.9% are founded jointly by men and women.
• Real estate operations: 25.9% of companies (16,902 companies) are founded by women, while another 13.1% of companies have mixed ownership. Despite the capital-intensive nature of the industry, there is a significant number of companies with female founders, which emphasizes their activity in resource-intensive sectors.
• Advertising and marketing: 25.2% of companies (3,481 companies) are founded exclusively by women. Another 9.5% of companies in this area have both women and men among their founders – women actively realize their competencies in areas that require creativity and effective communication.
• Pharmaceutical industry: 24.8% (2,138 companies) are founded by women, while 11.9% of companies have founders of both sexes.
• Healthcare: 24.8% of companies (3,267 companies) are founded by women, with an additional 14.3% having mixed founders.
• Retail: 24.0% of companies (8,882 companies) are founded solely by women, with an additional 10.2% having both women and men as founders

Thus, women in Ukraine most often choose to start a business in sectors focused on professional services, consumer demand and human interaction. In such industries as audit and accounting (48.5%), tourism (33.5%) and education (32.8%), their presence reaches a third or more. At the same time, in capital-intensive sectors such as real estate or pharmaceuticals, they also play a significant role, often collaborating with men. This picture shows that female entrepreneurship in Ukraine is multifaceted.

In the top 1000 by revenue, only 7.4% of companies have exclusively female beneficiaries

If we move from the total mass of enterprises to the largest companies in Ukraine, the picture of women’s participation becomes even more contrasting. An analysis of the top 1000 companies by net income in 2024 shows that there are very few purely female businesses among the leaders. Only 74 companies from the top 1000 (7.4%) have only female ultimate beneficiaries (the situation has hardly changed compared to 2023 – then this figure was 7%). For comparison, in 634 of the largest companies (63.4%) the beneficiaries are only men. Another 108 companies (10.8%) belong to a mixed type of ownership (both women and men), and in 184 (18.4%) – information about the ultimate beneficial owner is missing or uncertain.

In other words, more than three-fifths of the top companies in Ukraine are controlled exclusively by men, and only every thirteenth company is controlled exclusively by women. In the remaining cases, either the owners of both sexes jointly manage the business, or the beneficiaries are not disclosed. This indicates that at the highest level of business, women are represented to a much lesser extent than on average in the economy.

The sectoral distribution of the 74 women-owned companies from the top 1,000 largest enterprises is uneven. The largest number of those controlled by women was found in the food industry – 16 companies in this sector from the top 1,000 are headed by women-beneficiaries. There are also relatively many women-owned companies among the largest in the oil and gas sector (12 companies) and the electric power industry (12 companies). For comparison, in such large industries as wholesale trade or transport, there are fewer women-owned companies among the largest companies (7 and 5, respectively). In some areas of finance, heavy industry, etc., there are few or no women-beneficiaries among the top companies. In fact, traditional industries with a historically strong male presence (metallurgy, mechanical engineering, energy) remain so even at the top 1000 level, while women more often head the largest enterprises in consumer industries (food, trade) or in certain segments of resource- and financial-intensive businesses (for example, several companies in the oil sector).

Finance is a female territory in Ukrainian business

Unlike property, the situation is different in terms of hired management: women dominate the position of chief accountant in the largest firms. Among the top 1000 companies as of 2024, 807 enterprises (81%) had women as chief accountants, while only 113 companies (11%) had men. In about 8% of cases, information about the chief accountant was missing. Thus, 4 out of 5 leading companies in the country entrust financial accounting to women.

This proportion confirms a fairly established trend: accounting in Ukraine is an area where predominantly female personnel work, including in management roles. However, the dynamics are changing – according to data for the beginning of 2025, the share of women among the chief accountants of top companies has slightly decreased (to ~73%), while men have increased (~14%).

The entrepreneurial activity of women in 2024 demonstrated stable results against the background of a general recovery after the shock of 2022. Over the year, more than 7.4 thousand new commercial companies were registered, the founders of which were women – this is noticeably more than in the previous 2023 (about 6.86 thousand). The share of women’s enterprises among all new registrations in 2024 increased to 27.5% (versus ~24.6% a year earlier) – that is, every fourth new business in the country was founded by a woman.

Source: https://blog.youcontrol.market/