So far, elections in 2024 have brought more setbacks than gains for women’s political representation.
Saskia Brechenmacher is a PhD candidate and Gates Cambridge scholar at the University of Cambridge and a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, where her research focuses on gender, civil society, and democratic governance.
Prior to joining Carnegie, Brechenmacher worked as a graduate researcher at the World Peace Foundation in Boston and co-led a research project on corruption and state legitimacy in Uganda for the Henry J. Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security at Tufts University.
She has advised major governmental and private funders on strategies to advance women’s political participation and defend civic space in countries experiencing democratic backsliding. Her writing has been published in Foreign Policy, Just Security, National Interest, the Hill, World Politics Review, Open Democracy, and elsewhere. She is the co-author (with Katherine Mann) of Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics, published with Oxford University Press in 2024.
Brechenmacher currently serves on the board of directors of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law and as a member of the Advisory Group of the OECD’s Civic Space Observatory. She is a 2017 Atlantik-Brücke Young Leader and a Humanity in Action Senior Fellow and previously gained experience at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in London, and the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in Prague.
So far, elections in 2024 have brought more setbacks than gains for women’s political representation.
On the margins of the seventy-fifth NATO summit, please join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the National Democratic Institute for an event marking the launch of Women Leading Effective and Accountable Democracy in the Digital Age (Women LEAD), a new initiative from the Biden-Harris administration focused on advancing women’s political participation globally and addressing barriers to women’s leadership, both online and offline.
Globally, women remain systematically underrepresented in politics. But are current interventions to promote women’s political empowerment still fit for purpose?
In a context of democratic erosion, U.S. civil society organizations face a widening array of legal, political, and security threats. They can learn from the experiences of civic activists in backsliding democracies around the world.
A conversation on the evolution of democracy programs designed to encourage gender equality.
Women play diverse roles in and exert major influence on popular movements against democratic erosion around the world, from Brazil to Hungary to India.
International assistance for women’s political empowerment has evolved significantly over the last three decades, from a first generation of aid programs aimed at integrating women into nascent democratic institutions to a second generation focused on transforming the broader political ecosystem.
Many autocratic leaders have understood the power of women’s political action and are taking steps to co-opt or undermine it. Those looking to support democracy should take note.
Movements in Argentina and South Africa offer a guide for demanding government measures to curb gender-based violence.
It is noteworthy that at a time of global fragmentation, geopolitical tension, and pushback against some gender equality goals, new coalitions are emerging that are seeking to model an alternative path forward.