As part of the Breaking Barriers: Women Lawyers Campaign, Lawyers for Lawyers is launching a global interview series highlighting the experiences of women lawyers working across diverse contexts. Through these conversations, the series highlights the gendered challenges within the legal profession, while showcasing the resilience, leadership, and impact of women lawyers worldwide. In the first edition, released on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the spotlight is on Khrystyna Kit, a Ukrainian lawyer and women’s rights advocate working to advance justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Ukraine.
Building JurFem: origins and vision
Khrystyna Kit is a Ukrainian lawyer and women’s rights advocate who has dedicated her professional career to supporting survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Since her early years as a law student, she has worked with women’s rights organisations providing legal aid to survivors of domestic violence. Over time, she realised that many legal professionals lacked both the knowledge and the sensitivity required to work effectively with survivors, and that gender discrimination within the legal profession itself remained largely unaddressed.
In response, she co-founded the Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association “JurFem” in 2017, with the aim of building a gender-sensitive legal community and strengthening legal responses to gender-based violence. For Kit, addressing discrimination within the legal profession is inseparable from defending the rights of survivors. “If I, as a lawyer, feel discrimination during my professional life and I don’t react to it,” she explains, “it means I may also fail to react when it happens to my clients.” According to her, creating a gender-sensitive legal culture within the profession is a necessary first step toward achieving broader social change.
What began as an effort to connect and support women lawyers has since grown into a nationwide network of more than 200 women lawyers across Ukraine. Today, JurFem works not only to support women legal professionals, but also to influence legislation, legal practice, and institutional responses to sexual and gender-based violence.
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the organisation has expanded its work to provide legal aid for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. JurFem has also worked closely with state institutions to strengthen legislative and institutional responses to international crimes and promote gender-sensitive investigations and criminal proceedens, while also supporting Ukraine’s efforts to align its legislation with European Union standards on victims’ rights.
A survivor-centred approach to justice
A central pillar of Khrystyna Kit’s work is the implementation of a survivor-centred approach to justice. For her, this means recognising survivors not merely as sources of evidence within criminal proceedings, but as individuals with rights, needs, and agency, who should be at the centre of the process. “When a survivor reports sexual violence, their first need is often not accountability for the perpetrators,” she explains. “They need safety, psychological support, medical assistance, and to be heard in a sensitive and respectful way.”
This approach requires legal professionals to fundamentally rethink how they engage with survivors throughout legal proceedings. According to Kit, the war has highlighted the urgent need to build trust between survivors and the justice system. “We need to explain to society how investigations work, what survivors can expect during proceedings, and what support mechanisms are available,” she says. “People cannot trust a system they do not understand.”
JurFem has therefore invested in training programmes for lawyers, prosecutors, investigators, and judges working on sexual and gender-based violence cases. These trainings focus not only on evidence collection and legal procedures, but also on the “soft skills” needed to build trust with survivors. “If legal professionals do not know how to communicate properly with survivors, there is a risk that survivors will withdraw from the process entirely,” she notes. “And in sexual violence cases, survivor testimony often plays a crucial role.”
Gender discrimination within the legal profession
Alongside her work supporting survivors, Khrystyna Kit also highlights the persistent discrimination women lawyers continue to face within the legal profession in Ukraine. As she highlights, “we often talk about people who suffer from violence, however, we often don’t talk about those that support them”. For Kit, recognising the challenges faced by lawyers working on sexual and gender-based violence cases is essential, as these professionals are frequently exposed to barriers, threats, and intimidation themselves. “If lawyers continue to face these risks without support,” she explains, “many will no longer be able to continue this work with survivors.”
As a response, JurFem recently launched a survey examining the barriers experienced by women lawyers across the country. The findings reveal widespread sexism, discriminatory workplace practices, and structural inequalities. According to Kit, many women lawyers report being expected to perform unpaid care and administrative tasks in law offices, such as preparing tea or managing office needs, responsibilities rarely expected from male colleagues. Discrimination related to maternity and caregiving responsibilities also remains widespread. Women lawyers frequently face intrusive questions during job interviews about their plans regarding children and maternity leave, while assumptions about caregiving responsibilities often limit opportunities for promotion or professional advancement.
“These are gender stereotypes about the roles of men and women in society,” Kit explains. “And if these stereotypes exist in society, of course they will also exist within the legal profession.”
The war has further intensified these burdens. Many women lawyers are simultaneously managing demanding legal work, childcare responsibilities, caring for elderly relatives, and supporting husbands who are serving in the military, have been injured during the war, or are dealing with severe physical and psychological trauma. At the same time, ongoing missile attacks mean that many women cannot safely leave their children at home while they work, forcing them to constantly balance professional responsibilities with concerns for their family’s safety. For Kit, legal employers must respond by implementing more flexible and supportive workplace policies, including remote work options, childcare support, and mental health programmes.
Threats, intimidation, and the emotional toll of legal work
Women lawyers representing survivors of sexual and gender-based violence also face heightened risks of threats, harassment, and intimidation. According to JurFem’s research, women lawyers working on gender-based violence cases experience significantly higher levels of threats than lawyers working in other legal areas. These threats often come directly from perpetrators or their supporters.
“In a patriarchal society, many people continue to protect men who commit violence,” Kit says. “Lawyers representing survivors cannot do this work alone.”
For this reason, JurFem has developed strong peer-support mechanisms, including legal teams working collectively on highly sensitive cases and mental health support programmes for women lawyers. The emotional toll of working with survivors of sexual violence can be severe. Some lawyers within the organisation reported feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to continue their work. In response, JurFem introduced mental health initiatives providing psychological support sessions and monthly webinars focused on emotional resilience and self-care for women lawyers. For Kit, solidarity among women lawyers is essential not only for professional support, but also for sustaining long-term advocacy efforts.
Changing systems through legal advocacy
Despite the many challenges, Khrystyna Kit remains convinced that lawyers have a critical responsibility to advance access to justice and challenge systemic inequalities. “We are in a privileged position because we have the knowledge and skills to protect rights,” she says. “If we want to change systems and change culture, we cannot ignore people who do not have access to justice.”
For Kit, legal advocacy is not only about representing individual clients, but also about transforming institutions, legislation, and public attitudes toward violence against women. By building networks of solidarity among women lawyers, promoting survivor-centred justice, and pushing for institutional reform, she believes meaningful change is possible, both in Ukraine and beyond.
“Violence against women and barriers to access to justice remain major issues everywhere,” she concludes. “As lawyers, it is our responsibility to help change this situation.”
