Women in Ukraine have equal constitutional rights as men in the economic, political, cultural, and social fields, as well as in the family. At the same time, most of the around 45 percent of Ukraine's population who suffer from violence are females. Every fifth Ukrainian parliamentarian is a woman, while among major companies only 2% are managed by women.

The history of Ukraine during the past two centuries is closely connected to that of the Russian Empire and later on the Soviet Union. Ukraine gained independence in 1991, and is now a state with more than 40 million inhabitants, most of whom are Christian Orthodox, and 70% of the population is urban. The women's rights movement in Ukraine had its beginnings in the mid-19th century, but for most of the following period its activities were centered around the struggle for general national emancipation, avoiding the reinterpretation of traditional gender roles.

The rise in feminist activism started during the latter part of 2000s, and was significantly influenced by the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and the following Russo-Ukrainian War, which once again brought women to the forefront of struggle for democracy and national sovereignty. Those events produced unique challenges for women, but at the same time gave them a possibility to enter the country's armed forces on par with men.

Ruska Pravda, the legal code of Kyivan Rus', recognized the equality of genders, establishing the same responsibility for the murder of a woman as for that of a man. Legal rights of women were not limited, and a widow would automatically take the place of her deceased husband as head of the family. If division of inheritance between several sons had not been mentioned in a man's will, his widow had the right to decide it herself. Part of the inheritance remained property of the widow, and she had the right to transfer it to one of her children. Daughters were excluded from inheritance and could only receive dowry. If a female slave had common issue with her owner, she was excluded from his inheritance, but received freedom along with her children. Relatively broad rights of women in comparison to the contemporary Roman and Germanic Law could result from the influence of Slavic common law.

Wives of Rus' princes could rise to important positions in the society, serving as regents and managing princely property after their husbands' deaths. They could also serve as hegumenes, heading monasteries. Several Rus' princesses entered the ranks of European nobility by marrying foreign rulers: Anna Yaroslavna, who became Queen of France; Anastasia Yaroslavna, spouse of Andrew I of Hungary; Eupraxia, daughter of Vsevolod, who became a Holy Roman Empress; Euphrosyne, daughter of Mstislav, wife of Géza II of Hungary. In 1087 a school for girls was established by princess Anna Vsevolodovna in Kyiv.

According to the Statutes of Lithuania, women could be subjects of rights and duties and had no general limitations in their legal actions. Pregnant women were provided special protection by the law. Daughters were deprived of the right to inherit land, but marriage contracts involved a special clause, which provided the wife one-third of her husband's estate, which she could manage on her own. Among the lower classes, the process of enserfment led to the obligation for many women to participate in corvée labour. Many Ukrainian noblewomen of the time were active in the religious and cultural sphere, most notably Anastasia Olshanska [uk], Halshka Hulevychivna, Raina Vyshnevetska, Sofia Chortoryiska [uk] and Anna Hojska. Numerous women from Ukraine were captured and enslaved as a result of Tatar raids, ending up in Ottoman harems. Since that time, the images of female captives such as Roxelana and Marusia Bohuslavka have taken an important place in Ukrainian culture.

The Statutes of Lithuania in combination with local common law continued to define the legal status of women under the Cossack Hetmanate. According to a 1743 book of law, stricter punishment was introduced for the murder of women in comparison to men. At the same time, unmarried women were to receive less severe sanctions for committed crimes. During the Cossack era, the living conditions of female serfs were as a rule harder than those of men, many of whom could migrate to Zaporizhia. Wives of Zaporozhian Cossacks would take over the management of their husbands' estates while the latter were at war, and in some cases women would even take part in military engagements themselves. Among Cossack women who played an important role in Ukrainian politics of the era were Hanna Zolotarenko, the wife of Bohdan Khmelnytsky; Maria Mokiyevska, the mother of Ivan Mazepa; the wife of Semen Paliy; Hanna Hertsyk and Anastasia Markovych, the wives of hetmans Pylyp Orlyk and Ivan Skoropadsky respectively. During his travels through Ukraine, Paul of Aleppo marked the high educational level of local women, and mentioned the existence of a school at the Ascension Monastery in Kyiv.

Women were disproportionately affected by accusations of witchcraft, which were widespread in Ukrainian lands under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Hetmanate. According to modern research, almost 80% of all people accused of witchcraft in Ukraine during the 17th and 18th centuries were females. Evidence of application of torture to suspected witches is contained in 17th and 18th-century records from Lviv, Kamianets-Podilskyi and Kremenets. In Left-bank Ukraine, six women were burned in 1667 after being accused of employing magic against hetman Ivan Briukhovetsky and his wife Daria Dolgorukova, which supposedly resulted in a miscarriage. However, in total only around 5% of the accused were tortured, mostly due to the lack of hangmen and the generally milder character of judiciary in comparison to Western countries. Only a small part of accused were sentenced to death, and in more than half of cases the courts refused to investigate witchcraft accusations. Persecution of witches in Poland-Lithuania was officially stopped in 1776, one year after a ban on witch trials had been introduced in the Russian Empire. Despite this, accusations of witchcraft continued to be present in Ukrainian court records into the 19th century.