This article examines the role of mainstream political participation in the quest for gender equitable citizenship as a measure of the attainment of democracy. Citizenship stands here as the appropriate measure for the implementation of women's rights as human rights. The article examines citizenship status through the prism of representation in mainstream politics in the context of democratisation in Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to European Union accession negotiations, gender was marginal on the political agenda in most countries in the (...) region. Indeed, what counts as 'political' had been narrowed to denote formal party and legislative politics alone. The contradiction between this definition and the discursive validation of civil society involvement is explored, both within the region and by international donor agencies and supranational governments such as the European Union. Some empirical evidence of the barriers hindering women's access to the public sphere of the polity is presented. Finally, strategies such as the introduction of quotas that are designed to overcome the factors curtailing women's capacity to become active citizens in the public sphere of politics are discussed. (shrink)