The Emergency

It's Fascism. New Rules. | Feminist Motivations |by Esmée Streachailt

Women in Authoritarian Regimes

Esmée Streachailt

26 Apr 2025 — 6 min read

Medusa Rising has four reasons for the series on fascism and its many recommendations for women of the world and the US in particular:

I am pretty fucking terrified for the fate my nation and the vulnerable people in it.

Isolating movement for women from the larger struggle for freedom in the US (or anywhere) will mean disempowerment at this time, maybe for a long time.

Authoritarian regimes are a next level of hell for women who refuse complicity and compliance.

The Radical Notion collective worked hard to warn feminist and GC advocates of the dangers the right poses, that the signs were there for a much more intense crack-down on women than had been experienced recently.

And a fifth: Women are perfectly underestimated at this time.

Gender Wars Are an Early Warning Sign for Authoritarianism – RAND think tank

“Across the world, women have, and are, playing incredible roles as bulwarks against the rise of authoritarianism. Moldovan President Maia Sandu is standing up to a tsunami of Russian disinformation. In Poland, women played a critical role in the effort to oust the right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. In Hong Kong, women (PDF) continue to be the practical and normative face of resistance to Chinese authoritarian rule.

These are the freedom fighters of the 21st century. And yet, the U.S. national security community tends to view women's issues as a domestic concern, frivolous, or irrelevant to “hard” security matters.”

Seems worthy of sharing. Women's networks could just be the way to a future worth living and passing on.

We're up against a regime that is withdrawing from connection with the world (other than extractive), that is gaslighting its own populace and seeking greater power to control it through the whims of power.

Authoritarianism is what abuse looks like in public.

Women in Authoritarian Regimes – Chr. Michelsen Institute

Regimes take many approaches to women's representation in political leadership, and that presence may or may not correlate to over-all liberties for women.

Why empowered women are authoritarianism’s targets—and how they can be its undoing – Harvard Kennedy School of Government

The hard-won rights women have attained over the past century … have … increasingly become the target of authoritarian leaders and regimes looking to displace democracy with hierarchies controlled by male elites and to re-confine women in traditional roles as wives, mothers, and caregivers.

How Autocrats Weaponize Women's Rights – Journal of Democracy

… “autocratic gender-washing” to shed light on why authoritarian states adopt gender-equality reforms. Autocratic gender-washing occurs when autocrats take credit for advances in gender equality in order to turn attention away from persistent nondemocratic practices, such as violations of electoral integrity and human rights.

Are Authoritarian Regimes Backtracking Women’s Rights? – Politico

In 2024, nearly a quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash on women’s rights… “We are witnessing the mainstreaming of chauvinism and misogyny,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “As we see in every corner of the world, from pushback to rollback, women’s rights are under attack.”

Over 72% of the world live under authoritarian/autocratic regimes.

Now it’s here for the women of the US. Our Justice Department has closed the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) because it provides federal leadership developing the national capacity to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Yesterday, the American Bar Association canceled a webinar on trauma-informed representation moments before it was to start, stating that “effective immediately, all of our grants with the Office on Violence against Women have been terminated. The Department of Justice has concluded that these grants no longer effectuate the Agency priorities.” This will affect services, transitional housing, training for lawyers and police, etc., according to an article in Roll Call (which covers Congress and the agencies). The OVW granted a total of $633,444,382 in 2023. Pocket change in the scope of federal monies. The page showing grants for 2025 is now blank. It will be impossible for many services to make of this loss.

Not all women's/feminist organizations in the US will advise their members of possible responses to this rapid descent and dismemberment of the liberal order in the US and the world since WW2.

While the broader movements are cooperating (MoveOn, Indivisible, 50501, Anonymous) to build resistance and give courage to both the populace and leadership, the more renowned feminist organizations are not being so flexible.

NOW’s blog hasn't updated since December 2024.
https://now.org/say-it-sister/

Equally, FiST does not seem to have yet gathered a response to the present moment.
https://feministstruggle.org/action-alerts/

WDI-USA has no news to share even touching on harms intensifying under the US administration.
https://womensdeclarationusa.com/blog/

WoLF offers an article on Sudan in 2024, on gender as social structure (no kidding) Feb of 2025 .
https://womensliberationfront.org/wolf-tracks

Ms Magazine's news section is doing better. https://msmagazine.com/category/news/

Feminist Majority is going direct at the Trump regime. https://feminist.org/news/

The Liberals – Ms and Feminist Majority Foundation – are reporting on or challenging the US administration's threat to women at home and in the world.

That's why there's three more posts in this series unfolding the ways and means for RadMatFem women to ally with short and long term movements. Feminists, especially radical feminists, must be in the conversations seeking a way through to a more feminist world while we connect more deeply across resistance movements.

Minoritized women in the US and the 72% of the world living in these regimes know the habits and techniques of the civic abuse authoritarians impose on their people.

Authoritarianism is what abuse looks like in public.

Solidarity is what love looks like in public.

Resist, Rebel, & RECOVER.

Join a riot of support for women canceled for wrong-think. Writers, painters, potters, dancers, weavers, women of all creative kinds!! London, Streaming, May 30 & 31.

Tickets and Presenters