The analysis of women’s political participation based on their values and political environment from the feminist perspective, based on the cases of Belarusian summer protests in 2020 and the American pro-abortion movement in 2022

Women constitute half of our society, and it would be logical to assume that they are equally represented in politics. However, due to the patriarchal tradition of society, politics has always been considered as a man’s occupation. As of 2022, most of the world’s political institutions are still dominated by men that pass decisions in the interest of men. Yet, women’s participation varies across different countries and depends on many factors, including political and social environments. In this study, we are going to explore the political opportunities of women with either traditional or feminist values in the settings of democratic and authoritarian regimes. We will particularly consider the protests in Belarus during the Presidential elections in 2020 when the main opposition to the authoritarian regime was represented by three women and following the elections feminist mass protests. American pro-abortion feminist movement in 2022 will be the second case for the analysis of women’s political participation in democratic countries. To make the research inclusive, the methodology is based on a qualitative approach and decolonial ideas to account for the personal experiences of women who took part in the study case movements and share their visions of the events. It will allow us to find the real motivations and problems of women in politics articulated by women with different backgrounds who became politically active themselves, instead of hearing men’s reasoning that women can’t do politics because of different character features and values that don’t promote the national interest. The paper focuses on feminist women politicians because they are the ones who bring liberating ideas to society breaking status-quo, thus receiving the greatest resistance. The purpose of the paper is to further understand the challenges that women face today in the political sphere to better tackle them in the future.