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Yulia Timoshenko--Ukraine's former deputy prime minister and closest ally of Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate who is contesting the results of the recent presidential election--may be wearing her blond hair in the braid of Ukrainian peasant women these days.But that doesn't mean she is representative of the status of Ukrainian women.
In fact, if you ask women's rights leaders in the country, they are likely to say that Timoshenko--rich, powerful and bold--is a model of the status most women do not have.
Even though more than 60 percent of college graduates in Ukraine are women, few even hope for a high-level job, especially in the public sector, says Oksana Bilozir, a parliament member and one of the most active defenders of women's rights.