Gender Differences in Protest Participation: Findings from the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine

ABSTRACT

Ukrainian men and women en masse participated in the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2013–2014 Revolution of Dignity. Drawing on these cases of mass mobilization, the study examines gender differences in protest participation in a polity with fragile democratic institutions. Based on data from nationally representative surveys, the analysis demonstrates differences in the effects of some socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics on protest behavior. The results also suggest that the gendered impact of some variables diminishes with an increase in gender equality in society. This research expands our understanding of the relationship between gender and protest engagement in Eastern Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• Protest
• political participation
• Eastern Europe
• Ukraine

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the Institute of Sociology, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and in particular Viktor Stepanenko for generously providing access to the survey data. The author is also thankful to Timothy Frye, Sonja Grimm, Joshua Tucker, Sophia Wilson, and participants in the international workshop “Why to Fight against Dictatorship at High Personal Costs? Studying Political Activism and Its Leadership in Autocracies,” at the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt; the Postcommunist Politics Workshop at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University; the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Boston, and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Data on women’s representation in Ukraine’s national parliament are retrieved from the Global Data on National Parliaments compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, https://data.ipu.org/historical-women.

2. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the total population of Ukraine declined from 47.3 million people in 2004 to 45.3 million in 2013, including 24.4 million women and 20.9 million men (Timonina 2017, 16).

3. The study adopts the Institute of Sociology’s methodology of grouping Ukraine’s provinces (oblasts) into four macro regions. West is comprised of Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Rivne, Volyn, and Zakarpattia. Center includes Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Khmelnytsky, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia, and Zhytomir. South covers southern and southeastern oblasts: Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia. East includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, comprising the Donetsk coal-mining basin (Donbas).

4. The Ministry of Education of Ukraine distinguishes between institutions of higher education with I – II accreditation level (colleges and vocational schools) and institutions of higher education with III – IV accreditation level (institutes and universities). The article cites student enrollment in institutions of higher education with III – IV accreditation level. Data are retrieved from the website of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, https://ukrstat.org/uk/operativ/operativ2005/osv_rik/osv_u/vuz_u.html.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Faculty Research Grant, Fordham University.

Notes on contributors

Olena Nikolayenko

Olena Nikolayenko is a Professor of Political Science at Fordham University. Her research interests include comparative democratization, contentious politics, civil resistance, and political behavior, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe. She is the author of two books, Citizens in the Making in Post-Soviet States (Routledge, 2011) and Youth Movements and Elections in Eastern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Her current research focuses on women’s activism in Belarus and Ukraine.