Abstract

Citizen protests are common political phenomena, ranging in size, kind, and impact. This essay focuses on a unique kind of citizen protest that reaches a crisis threshold: massive uprisings accompanied by violence and system-level critiques, expressed in phrases such as "It is not 30 cents, it is 30 years, " used by protesters in Chile in 2019-20. Crises meeting this definition have occurred in countries as diverse as Iceland in 2009, Hong Kong in 2019, Chile, and Colombia in 2019-21. In contrast with economic crises (Strolovitch 2013), protesters-not necessarily elites-perform the discursive work of (re)interpreting material and political conditions. Protesters' framing of their grievances may overwhelm elite attempts to reinterpret these crises for their benefit. We argue that protest-driven crises can alter gendered opportunity structures, but outcomes are likely multifaceted and potentially contradictory.