Title: The impact of Russia´s full-scale war on women´s political participation in Ukraine

Abstract

Women’s political participation is usually measured in binary terms – either in office or out of politics. This approach, however, overlooks the fact that political participation can be viewed as a continuum, with forms ranging from informal to formal. In the context of war, the movement within this continuum can be the only way for female politicians to preserve and exercise their political agency when the institutional foundation shakes.

Using a mixed-methods design, this paper explores the resignations of local female deputies in Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion that began on 24 February 2022. Based on nine semi-structured interviews with female politicians who exited formal politics, it maps the ‘breaking points’ leading to those decisions, the shifts in professional activities of respondents and intentions about future political participation. Quantitative data on the gender composition of 1577 local councils across different tiers at three points in time (2020, 2022, and 2026) explore structural patterns over time and reveal that the gender composition of councils remained stable (37% women to 63% men on average).

The qualitative part of the research suggests that resignations were shaped by border crossing obstacles, political pressure, the expansion of the Military Administration's power, and accumulated exhaustion, combined with economic precarity. However, it also reveals that respondents shifted to forms of informal political participation, such as work at CSOs, charitable foundations, NGOs, and volunteering, indicating not a withdrawal but rather a relocation of their political agency.