Thread by @jweisswolf

Women’s rights and democracy – America is backsliding on both. A 🧵 for #WomensHistoryMonth @BrennanCenter 1/14
brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…

In 2021 the U.S. was flagged as a backsliding democracy by @Int_IDEA – w/ noted lapses in effect­ive legis­lat­ive bodies and freedoms of expres­sion and assembly 2/14

Around the same time, when TX #SB8 went into effect some smart folks looked at the correlation between abortion rollbacks & back­slid­ing demo­cracies @nytimes @Max_Fisher 3/14
nytimes.com/2021/09/09/wor…

Fisher wrote: “Major­it­ari­an­ism and the rights of women, the only univer­sal major­ity, are inex­tric­ably linked. Where one rises or falls, so does the other.” 4/14

Is the inverse also true? Could it be that all along, Amer­ica’s longstand­ing abysmal record on gender equity has been a harbinger for our down­graded democratic status? 5/14

Accord­ing to @UN_women, the traject­ory of “de-demo­crat­iz­a­tion” is rarely initially analyzed through the distinct lens of gender equity 6/14
unwomen.org/en/digital-lib…

True, the U.S. is exper­i­en­cing an *increase* in women’s repres­ent­a­tion, including in Congress, as VP, on SCOTUS, and in statehouses. See latest @CAWP_RU stats 7/14
cawp.rutgers.edu/facts/current-…

But these raw numbers don’t tell the whole story. In fact, women’s equity in lead­er­ship in the U.S. lags relat­ive to much of the world. 8/14

And relative representation is still pretty dismal, especially for women of color. Today there are zero Black women in the Senate. And a Black woman has never served as state governor. 9/14

The U.S. also ranks low on essen­tial ingredi­ents for women’s parti­cip­a­tion in the body politic – from maternal mortality rates, to paid leave, to pay equity, etc. @everymomcounts @paygapapp #marshallplanformoms 10/13

The U.S. is far behind on consti­tu­tional equal­ity, too, even as the #ERA heads to full rati­fic­a­tion. 11/14
brennancenter.org/our-work/resea…

85% of @UN member states already prohibit discrim­in­a­tion on the basis of sex &/or gender #ERA @ERACoalition @MsMagazine @FemMajority @kate_Kelly_Esq 12/14

And other crises: U.S. corrections and detention have few guard­rails against barbaric, abus­ive prac­tices like forced sterilization, shackling during labor, and denial of menstrual products. @abfettig @RiaTabaccoMar @marnisommer 13/14

Are these byproducts of a demo­cracy on the decline, or drivers themselves of a down­ward spiral? We MUST be able to answer that question – and address the ways women & esp. WOC have been canaries in the coal mine all along 14/14