Cathy Dobbs: Salute these women who are as hard as nails

Someone said to me this weekend: “If everyone in the world threw their troubles up in the air, you’d be pretty happy if your own troubles landed back on your shoulders.”

For the majority of us this is very true, and has been even more accurate this week with war breaking out in Ukraine.

We’ve heard of families being separated, as men aged between 18 and 60 have been told they can’t leave the country. There have been images and videos of dads waving their wives and children off at train stations, possibly wondering if they will ever see each other again.

Even though Ukraine has declared martial law, which means men can be called on to fight, recent video footage shows women and children outside in the parks making Molotov cocktails, aka petrol bombs, as they prepare to defend their country. Everyone wants to feel like they are doing their bit to fight the enemy.

As they fill the deadly bottles it’s interesting to see that a couple of the women have nicely manicured nails. It is a reminder that just a week ago their lives were probably very similar to ours.

Just a few days ago those women would probably have been talking with their manicurist about what colour they wanted their nails. Now one of them, a young teacher, says “It seems like the only important thing to do now” as she grabs the shredded styrofoam in her hands and puts it in glass bottles along with flammable liquid. The styrofoam is used to help the bomb attach to targets.

Civilians have also answered the call to take up arms and join the reservists, with lines of men and women reported outside registration points. One of those is beauty queen and former Miss Ukraine, Anastasia Lenna, who has left behind her glamorous outfits to fight for her country.

Too often women, who spend a lot of time on their appearance, have been dismissed as superficial airheads. We have this confirmed with programs such as Love Island, where beautiful women have come across as thick two short planks.

There was one contestant who asked what an earlobe is, and if Essex is a continent – she came across to everyone watching as a ditzy blonde. But if her country was at war, she could well be one of those women taking up arms to protect everything she cares about.

We may have our own worries, such as paying the bills, health concerns and relationship issues, but would we really swap them for the fear that your home could be invaded?

Seeing the women in Ukraine preparing to fight proves that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And there are women out there proving that they are harder than a set of gel manicured nails.