Navigating Gender Norms as a Woman in Eastern European Politics - A Case Study of Belarus and Serbia

This paper investigates the role of gender in (Eastern) European politics by means of two case studies, one about the Belarusian democratic representative Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Serbia’s prime minister Ana Brnabić. As female politicians in conservative, Eastern European countries, their gender (and sexuality) are at the intersection of contemporary progressive and regressive attitudes towards gender in politics. The paper uses qualitative discourse analysis to map and interrogate the different narratives surrounding both women as they relate to their gender and, in case of Brnabić, sexuality. Concretely, the paper illustrates the influence of social and political attitudes towards gender in the careers of both politicians. It does this using the theoretical framework of hostile and benevolent sexism to identify and discuss the different forms of sexism they encounter. Furthermore, it analyses the different strategies used to deal with these circumstances, using the same theoretical framework as well as the concept of gender performativity. The Belarusian case study mostly focuses how gender stereotypes can be weaponized by and against a sexist environment. The Serbian case study, on the other hand, allows for a more intersectional analysis which looks at the interaction between Brnabić’s gender, sexuality and social class. Here, the discussion mostly centers around how her identity is useful for the regime and why her participation in the Serbian government does not necessarily contribute to the advancement of women’s and queer rights in the country. Even though these case studies concern two countries with very specific social and geopolitical circumstances, many of the results can be connected to literature on dynamics relating to gender and sexuality on the European and even global level. The paper contributes to discussions of gender- and pinkwashing and the rising anti-gender movement. It illustrates how authoritarian leaders use policies that performatively improve gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights to improve their international reputation and hide their less democratic practices. Here too, there is an interesting difference between the example of Tsikhanouskaya, which shows how sexism can be opposed, and that of Brnabić, which interrogates how and why a queer woman can be complicit in her own discrimination.