@saskiabr.bsky.social spoke to @nytimes.com about the connection between gender equality and democracy! Quotes in the thread🧵⤵️ Read Saskia's full report "The New Struggle Over Gender, Rights, and Family Values" here:

@saskiabr.bsky.social and I wrote in @foreignpolicy.com about the dismantling of gender equality architecture in U.S. foreign policy, including offices that were created more than six decades ago with bipartisan consensus. foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/13/t...

"The Trump administration has abandoned the consensus that women's participation and perspectives add value to U.S. security policy and operations." @rcturk.bsky.social @saskiabr.bsky.social @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/13/t...

📽️📽️Check out the new explainer video from @carnegieendowment.org on global lessons for nonprofits responding to shrinking civic space in the U.S. The video highlights 3⃣ findings from the work of DCG Senior Fellow @saskiabr.bsky.social:

Civil society in the US faces new threats and pressures. What can US nonprofits learn from strategies used by organizations and activists in other countries? This short video highlights findings from my research: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbw...

🎙️"A lot of these [illiberal] actors have recognized that gender issues are a really good mobilization tool...It becomes a symbol of what you are against." Listen to @saskiabr.bsky.social's discussion with @markleongoldberg.bsky.social on the #GlobalDispatches podcast👇

From Uganda to Nigeria, activists have pushed back against threats to protests, nonprofits, and free speech. What can U.S. civil society learn from their success? We unpacked three strategies, based on work by @carnegiedcg.bsky.social's @saskiabr.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbw...

Around the world, issues of so-called “gender ideology” – or issues like gender equality and LBGTQ rights – are subject to a new, powerful wave of backlash. @carnegiedcg.bsky.social's @saskiabr.bsky.social explained how this backlash manifests in different regions 👇

Checking in from parental leave to share my latest paper with @carnegiedcg.bsky.social! What's behind the contemporary anti-gender backlash? How does it manifest across different countries and regions? And why has it been difficult to mount an effective response? 🔽 🔽 🔽

🆕| The 2024 election year did not bring major upticks in women’s political representation. This negative trendline underscores that the road to gender parity remains arduous and uncertain, argues @saskiabr.bsky.social. Read her newest publication for the Colmena Fund👇 colmena.fund/wp-content/u...

How is Trump eroding U.S. press freedoms? In their piece for @wpr.bsky.social, @saskiabr.bsky.social & Margot Treadwell highlight three key tactics, drawing insights from other backsliding democracies👇

These men (Musk, Hegseth, Kennedy Jr, Dana White) "weren’t elevated despite their alleged abuse of women. Putting them in charge proclaims that their values are now ascendant — power, aggression, hierarchy and leader-worship." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/o...

"In addition to targeting a vulnerable minority, attacks on gender ideology open the door to a much wider offensive against equality norms and rights protections," asserts @saskiabr.bsky.social. Read her full piece for @carnegieendowment.org👇

ICYMI - after the German elections, the most important take aways are on Democracy and Defense. Analysis from @saskiabr.bsky.social and me for @carnegieendowment.org

Germany's elections affirmed 2 major trends shaping its politics: increasing political fragmentation and the rise of the far-right. The election results hold significant ramifications for Germany, the EU, and beyond, write @sophiabesch.bsky.social & @saskiabr.bsky.social for @carnegieendowment.org👇

Whereas US institutions completely failed to hold Trump accountable for his attempt to overturn an election, Brazil's institutions show some vigor. Brazil Charges Bolsonaro With Plotting a Coup After 2022 Election Loss www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/w...

Experiences from backsliding democracies highlight the threats that the Trump administration poses to U.S. media freedom. @saskiabr.bsky.social & Margot Treadwell examine three of these dangers in their newest for @wpr.bsky.social⤵️

For @wpr.bsky.social, Margot Treadwell & I highlight 3 strategies Trump is using to erode independent media: ➡️ Chilling effects through vilification, barriers to access & lawsuits ➡️ Exploiting the media sector's economic vulnerabiities to exert control ➡️ Cultivating alternative information channels

The new DoJ leadership seems to think that “the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General” take precedence over a Justice Department lawyer’s oath … to the Constitution." www.stevevladeck.com/p/124-the-th...

President Trump's attacks against “gender ideology" are not about defending women, @saskiabr.bsky.social asserts. Rather, they align with a global movement targeting LGBTQ rights and progressive gender norms. Read her newest for @carnegieendowment.org⤵️

Trump's new executive order on "gender ideology" is not about protecting women. Instead, it reflects a broader transnational assault on progressive gender norms. My take for @carnegieendowment.org @carnegiedcg.bsky.social:

The US is headed toward competitive authoritarianism, warn political scientists Steven Levitksy and Lucan Way: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Rubio claims that @USAID lifesaving assistance for health and humanitarian needs will continue. But his team just communicated that the entire agency will be imminently reduced from 14,000 to 294 people. Just 12 in Africa.

Worth tuning into this:

New — USAID staff received an email just a few minutes ago letting them know HQ would be closed to all personnel Monday. It’s likely some employees will miss the overnight email, show up and be turned away. It was sent by Gavin Kliger, one of the young guys at DOGE doing Musk’s bidding.

The sparse news coverage that exists of the Billionaire's Coup is, frankly, incomprehensible to a lay audience. "Treasury payment system" is meaningless jargon to most people. Tell people in plain language "Here is what Trump and Musk are doing, and here is how it affects Americans."

NEW: Sources tell my office that Treasury Secretary Bessent has granted DOGE *full* access to this system. Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk's own companies. All of it.

Read my #WeekendReading on #WomensRepresentation on @msmagazine.com featuring @saskiabr.bsky.social - patriarchy & authoritarianism @cecilianowell.bsky.social on women majority in NM on @motherjones.com, @roxyszal.bsky.social on Cecile Richards, #ERA & monument to women suffragists in @nytimes.com

This is likely to be very disruptive: State Department not only pauses new foreign aid spending but also issues stop-work order on all US assistance grants and contracts.

Trump’s effort to restrict birthright citizenship by executive order is (1) unlawful; (2) predicated on conflating two entirely distinct legal arguments; and (3) doomed to fail in (even these) courts. My “One First” explainer: www.stevevladeck.com/p/bonus-112-...

Maybe its a good time for a little Executive Order (EO) primer, a few wee tools for sorting wheat from chaff so it seems like less of a deluge. Item 1. EOs have to comply with the Constitution & laws, including acts of Congress. Any that don't will face long court battles before anything changes. /1

Normal stuff

Check out this new paper on democratic resilience published by the @europeandemocracyhub.epd.eu! The authors - @fromagehomme.bsky.social & Marie-Eve Desrosiers et al. - offer five lessons for practitioners and reformers working on democratic renewal: europeandemocracyhub.epd.eu/wp-content/u...

"Populist leaders cannot strangle democracy at will; certain institutional vulnerabilities are a necessary precondition." Scholars Eva Bellin and Kurt Weyland argue that US democracy is more resilient than we might think: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Know any lawyers with an interest in defending civil society and civic freedoms in the US? @icnl.bsky.social is looking for a new legal advisor for their growing US program! You'd join an amazing team and be advancing meaninful democracy-building work: www.icnl.org/wp-content/u...

Trying to understand what's happening in Syria? Pay attention to the military's decisions. This helpful analysis by my colleague @yezidsayigh.bsky.social compares the actions & incentives of Syrian armed forces to regime breakdowns in Egypt, Sudan, Libya: carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/...

What we're reading: Saskia Brechenmacher explores why autocratic movements around the world — not just in the United States — tend to advance restrictive gender norms. carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

More than 20,000 pregnancies in the United States end in stillbirth each year. At least 1 in 4 are likely preventable. Our new documentary, “Before a Breath,” gives voice to parents who have lost children to stillbirth. Here’s a sneak peek. propub.li/41v87Lz

In both Georgia and Texas, about a quarter of citizens are unsure whether they need an ID to vote, or they incorrectly believe they don’t need ID to vote.

Correction: The North Carolina SENATE voted to enact this power grab by overriding the governor’s veto, but the N.C. House hasn’t voted yet. Republicans hold a supermajority there too, but North Carolinians still have time to call their state representatives and tell them to oppose this bill.

The North Carolina General Assembly’s GOP supermajority just approved a hugely corrupt power grab, seizing authority from the governor and the courts to prevent any meaningful check on legislative abuses. Authoritarian stuff. A very dark day for democracy in NC. amp.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

More signs of backsliding: A committee in Brazil's lower chamber of Congress approved a bill on Wednesday that would ban abortion in Brazil in all cases including those currently allowed such as fetal deformation, rape or when the mother's health is in danger. www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Democratic rebuilding efforts need to recognize how patriarchy factors in the authoritarian playbook rather than treating it as a political sideshow. If not, they risk missing an important piece of the puzzle. Full of insights by @saskiabr.bsky.social carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Why Gender Is Central to the Antidemocratic Playbook: Unpacking the Linkages in the United States and Beyond carnegieendowment.org/research/202... by @saskiabr.bsky.social

What does gender have to do with the anti-democratic playbook? In my new piece for the @carnegieendow.bsky.social @carnegiedcg.bsky.social, I examine why and how patriarchy and authoritarianism are often interlinked, in the US and beyond: carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Interested in democracy, conflict & governance issues in the US and globally? Follow @carnegiedcg.bsky.social & my wonderful colleagues linked below for updates on our most recent research and analysis:

I found this Ezra Klein interview with Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini very enlightening. Worth reading/listening to: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/09/o...

"The populist hardware consists of hijacked institutions. The software is made up of populist discourses and narratives that are used to create and enlist the consent of the ruled." www.politico.com/news/magazin...