What Women Want: Polish Women’s Social Participation in Zamosc

Participation is conceptually too broad to account for women’s involvement in local governance in Poland. By using the city of Zamosc as a case study, it be-comes clear that it is preferable to break this concept down into political and social participation in order to assess women’s engagement at the local level. Women in Zamosc overwhelmingly favour social participation, and perceive themselves as acting independently of the local government. Through the subdivision of participation into social and political it be-comes apparent that the prospects for a sustainable form of women’s political participation are limited, which in turn restricts the transformative potential of citizen participation, and creates a narrow form of governance in Zamosc. De-spite this, women retain control over their social participation and, through it, influence the future of the city as well as their own, thereby questioning nor-mative assumptions about the necessity of women’s political participation.