ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the discursive strategies women activists and politicians use to gain support and justify their involvement in the male-associated sphere of the political. Women who are publicly active yet not part of any formal political structure are arguably engaged in political pursuits, as their activities seek to influence the direction of society. For non-governmental organizations (NGO) women, though, the gendering of the political sphere as male even more easily allows them to claim distance from politics. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the body charged with organizing and monitoring elections and one of the most powerful international bodies which de facto govern post-war Bosnia. During the local elections of April 2000, the League of Women Voters held a public forum in Zenica at which women candidates from all parties presented themselves and their ideas.
