Over the past two decades, there has been a resurgence of authoritarianism around the globe. The recent wave of autocratization – the declining quality of institutions for clean elections, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly – stalled the global spread of democratic ideas and principles. A related global trend is the unprecedented frequency, scope, and size of anti-government protests. Women play a vital role in pro-democracy movements and revolutions. Yet, women’s engagement in contentious politics often appears to be invisible in the public discourse. This chapter presents a typology of women’s participation in a revolution. In addition, this chapter provides background information about the Revolution of Dignity and its participants, identifies the main trends in gender inequality in Ukrainian society, and describes data sources.

Using the case of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, the book demonstrates various motivations for women’s involvement in a revolution, women’s activism in multiple domains, and the multifaceted outcomes of the revolution. The concluding chapter points out the implications of the main findings for our understanding of contentious politics. To place an analysis of Ukraine’s Euromaidan in a cross-national perspective, this chapter discusses the cases of the 2013 Gezi Park uprising in Turkey and the 2020 electoral revolution in Belarus. Furthermore, this chapter suggests that an examination of women’s engagement in Euromaidan enhances our understanding of women’s involvement in the Russia–Ukraine war.

This chapter investigates the impact of women’s participation in Euromaidan and the ensuing Russia–Ukraine war on gender equality in contemporary Ukraine. Drawing on social movement literature, the analysis distinguishes several types of outcomes: (1) political outcomes, measured by legal changes and women’s representation in different branches of government; (2) economic outcomes, measured by the unemployment rate, the gender wage gap, and occupational segregation; and (3) cultural outcomes, measured by mass attitudes toward gender equality. Consistent with a hybrid model of women’s participation in a revolution, this chapter registers various degrees of progress in different spheres. In addition, based on data from oral history projects and media interviews with female activists, this chapter illustrates the biographical consequences of women’s participation in the Revolution of Dignity.

Since the start of the twentieth century, at least three episodes of contention preceding Euromaidan had a profound impact on the development of Ukrainian statehood and the dynamics of state–society relations: the 1917-1921 Ukrainian Revolution, the 1990 Revolution on Granite, and the 2004 Orange Revolution. This chapter provides an overview of women’s activism over the course of these revolutions in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and postcommunist Ukraine on the assumption that earlier episodes of mass mobilization shape patterns of state–society relations in the country. The findings suggest that such educational organizations as Prosvita and student unions served as mobilizing structures for many young women. Furthermore, this chapter shows how women gradually challenged dominant gender norms and gained greater visibility in contentious politics.

This chapter highlights a diversity of women’s roles during the Revolution of Dignity, which aligns well with a hybrid model of women’s participation in a contemporary revolution. Drawing on rich data from oral history projects, the book identifies twelve main domains of women’s activism, including art production, crowdsourcing, food provision, legal aid, medical services, public order, and public relations. This chapter challenges a binary construction of women’s involvement in stereotypically feminine or stereotypically masculine activities during a period of mass mobilization. The patriarchal model of women’s participation in a revolution assumes a gender-based division of labor within a revolutionary movement, which reinforces preexisting patriarchal norms in society. The emancipatory model, on the contrary, assumes women’s access to formal positions of leadership within the movement. Located between these two extremes, the hybrid model of women’s participation in a revolution acknowledges the diversity and fluidity of women’s roles. According to the hybrid model, women might adopt three different strategies: (1) acquiescence to a traditional gender-based division of labor, (2) appropriation of the masculine forms of resistance, and (3) adoption of gender-neutral roles or switching from stereotypically feminine to stereotypically masculine roles.

Consistent with a hybrid model of women’s participation in a revolution, this chapter uncovers a wide range of motivations for women’s engagement in civil resistance, including dissatisfaction with the quality of governance, motherhood, civic duty, professional service, and solidarity with protesters. Specifically, empirical evidence suggests that outrage over police violence and the government’s disregard of human dignity can serve as a catalyst for mass mobilization. This chapter also highlights various mobilizing structures that galvanized women into action, including friendship networks, professional associations, social media, and civic organizations. Moreover, the book contributes to the literature about the impact of biographical availability on protest participation by demonstrating how women might come up with creative solutions to overcome barriers to protest engagement. For example, many women tried to combine their childcare duties with involvement in the revolution by virtue of social media. The empirical findings presented in this chapter speak to a key debate in contentious politics literature on determinants of protest participation.