New evidence suggests that the gender protest gap—the difference between male and female participation in protest events—has decreased in Russia prior to February 2022, despite the patriarchal, authoritarian regime. Following the comparative literature, we rely on a survey experiment to show that women strategically participate in activism that have limited risk of state violence or social sanctions. Distinctions between the nature of protests and protest grievances as well as strategic opportunities to choose among protest repertoires and frames allow women to engage in activism without significant costs. There are two important exceptions. First, women are still less likely to participate in overtly politicized actions that challenge the regime. They are also less likely to participate in state-sponsored actions or actions in support of traditional family values voluntarily, although they are often coerced to do so. To explore the mechanisms that support these patterns in women’s activism, we rely on two additional types of evidence: a narrative of recent developments in women’s activism and interviews with Russian women activists in exile. These data illustrate the pathways to activism that underpin the activism against Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine that is reported in the articles in this special issue.
Smyth et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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