The wave of political unrest that has swept North Africa and the Middle East since January 2011 brought women to the forefront of the political scene. They were on the frontline of the protest movements that contributed to the fall of the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and to the adoption of constitutional and political reforms in Morocco. Women participated alongside men in mobilizing people to demonstrate. They were active during the protests by leading demonstrations, treating wounded protesters, and spreading information by speaking to international media. Through their participation in the January 25 movement in Egypt and the February 20 movement in Morocco, they joined common calls for dignity, freedom and social justice. What is commonly referred to as the "Arab spring" gave women hope to extend their rights and gain further access to the political arena. However, two years after the uprisings, women are still excluded from decision making bodies of the transitional regimes. As recent research has demonstrated, women are regularly marginalized and tend to even loose gains acquired during or promised at the height of a revolutionary struggle (Al-Ali, 2012). Moreover, there is an increasing instrumentalization of women’s bodies. Particularly in Egypt, sexual assaults against female protestors are used to keep them away from the street: women are harassed, attacked and obligated to undergo virginity tests (Rosa, 2012). In this paper, I will address a number of questions to deepen our understanding of past and present women engagement in protests: Who are the women protestors? How do they organize, and do their forms of organization differ from their male counterparts? What are the motives behind their political engagement? What are the risks they face as women protestors? How do their societies, male counterparts and families perceive their participation in protests? Analysis will draw on some of the findings of a survey conducted in Morocco and Egypt in February-March in 2013, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with women protestors in the two countries in January-April 2013. In doing so, I will highlight similarities and differences between women activism in Morocco and in Egypt, showing how the social and political contexts impact on the type of demands, as well as the ideological aspirations of women activists in the two countries.