Hrycak intends to focus on women's activism in contemporary Ukraine. Her research will go beyond the familiar debates concerning the weakness of post-communist civil societies by offering an alternative model of civic engagement based not on NGOs but on small scale discussion groups that act as springboards for fostering civic engagement ("micro-publics"). She will examine how women activists struggle to develop standpoints from which to define women's needs and interests as citizens. In doing so, Hrycak will analyze the factors that aid women’s ongoing struggles to establish and sustain women's groups, gender studies centers, and various women's niches embedded within churches, right-leaning political parties, and other gender integrated institutions.