Dateline: Mar 6

This Tuesday, ahead of International Women’s Day, Dateline‘s Calliste Weitenberg meets the young female recruits reforming Ukraine’s once loathed police force, including 28-year-old former kindergarten teacher, Ilona and single mother Irina.

Until recently, women were banned from 456 jobs in the Ukraine*, but now the police force is leading the way on gender reform. They’re recruiting frontline female officers in a bid to change their brutal and bloody reputation.

Filming at the Dnipro Police Academy, Dateline is given full access to a four-day training session where Ilona and other young officers learn progressive approaches to policing and new ideas around domestic violence and gender awareness. They also participate in role plays, self-defence tactics and new communication techniques.

Following the training session, Dateline joins Ilona and her partner as they attend a number of call outs. One of the biggest challenges they face is the Soviet laws and resistance from male colleagues.

Irina Zelinskaya is a 31-year-old single mother and commander of 177 officers. Just three years ago, a female commander like Irina would have been unthinkable. The police force was one of Ukraine’s most corrupt and sexist institutions with only 5% female staff, who mostly worked desk jobs**.

“We needed to change something in this country, we need to start lifting her up… somehow with our own hands”, Irina tells Dateline.

“The moment came when a window opened for me in my life and I was given the chance to take part in the reform and work for the police… there was one thing that I understood. I was coming to work for a system that wanted to change our country and bring something better.”

But changing her country means proving sceptics wrong.

“Do people ever say that women should just be at home making borsche?” asks reporter Calliste Weitenberg.

“Oh yeah,” Irina tells Dateline. “’You are a blonde’, ‘You know nothing.’ ‘What are you doing coming here?”

In Kiev, Dateline gets exclusive access to Anastasia Deeva, the country’s feisty deputy interior minister spearheading police reforms. At just 26-years-old, she cuts a remarkable figure amongst her country’s male-dominated political sphere.

Anastacia believes women are key to reforming the culture of the police and helping align her country closer with Europe and tells Dateline, “We have a very unique chance to change our country and we need to do it right here, right now.”

Tuesday 6 March at 9.30pm on SBS.