SOLIDARITY DESPITE AND BECAUSE OF DIVERSITY. ACTIVISTS OF THE POLISH WOMEN’S STRIKE
SOLIDARITY DESPITE AND BECAUSE OF DIVERSITY. ACTIVISTS OF THE POLISH WOMEN’S STRIKE

Summary/Abstract: In one of the largest studies on coordinators of the Polish Women’s Strike (OSK) conducted in Poland so far, we carried out almost 100 CAWI and PAPI interviews with local coordinators of OSK groups from the entire country. Our aim was to get to know the people behind a countrywide network that organized the successful 2016 protests against attempts to tighten the already restrictive abortion law. We also wanted to find out what drove them to activism and how they understood the ambivalent concept of an “ordinary woman.” Although almost all of our respondents agree that the participants of the Women’s Strike in 2016 were “ordinary women”, the way they use the term “ordinary” does not align with the right-wing operationalisations of that term; on the contrary, it is associated with the diversity of the protesters. Based on the findings about the kinds of social positionings and intersections that OSK coordinators pay attention to, we discuss the issue of agency and possible reasons constraining participation in public (socio-political) life.

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