Rebecca Turkington

In this Elements, Jakana Thomas & I consider how women’s representation impacts the implementation of gendered peace provisions after war. With new data on peace provision implementation, we show that the representation of ex-rebel women has significant effects on implementation & therefore peace!

Remembering Yanar Mohammed The Iraqi feminist and human rights activist was gunned down in Baghdad

Remembering Yanar Mohammed—because mainstream media has failed to. She was a human and women's rights defender, gunned down in Baghdad. She deserves to be honored. And we deserve a media with a wider lens. open.substack.com/pub/interrup...

Taken together, an overall look at protest patterns in 2026 reinforces the sense of a growing, durable, and disciplined pro-democracy movement increasingly mobilized at the grassroots.

Melinda French Gates’ Plans To Give Away More Than $12.5 Billion Divorced from Bill Gates and the foundation they created, French Gates discusses connecting with other women to maximize their impact at a critical time.

"Issues affecting women and girls are chronically and unconscionably underfunded. Organizations dedicated to women and girls receive only around 2% of U.S. philanthropic dollars. If you put aside cancer research, women’s health receives just 1% of research funding." www.forbes.com/sites/luisak...

President Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, with Perkins among those witnessing the signing (third from right) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Signing_Of_The_Social_Security_Act.jpg

1/ I recently wrote about Frances Perkins—FDR’s Labor Secretary and first woman cabinet member. She is best known as the architect of the New Deal but she had a lesser-known achievement:

She dismantled her era’s version of ICE.🧵

The Purged Donald Trump’s destruction of the civil service is a tragedy not just for the roughly 300,000 workers who have been discarded, but for an entire nation.

Read Frank Foer's amazing essay on the civil servants we have lost

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

My latest article, for @foreignaffairs.com, on how to the fight for women's rights has to adapt to a changed geopolitical landscape:

“Heroic Excavators of Government Secrets” Washington, D.C., December 10, 2025 - Almost 40 years ago, as White House aide Lt. Col. Oliver North was secretly running the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra operations, he became concerned about ...

We published our "Top 40" declassified documents to celebrate 40 years of the National Security Archive! (Click below to read them.) nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

A People's Congress What insights can feminists gain from revisiting the 1975 World Congress for International Women’s Year in East Berlin?

What insights can feminists gain from revisiting the 1975 World Congress for International Women's Year?

Natali Moreira explores this overlooked event using the Women of the Whole World journal archived at @fotwl.bsky.social 🗃️✊

I really enjoyed talking with @thepixelproject.bsky.social earlier this year about what we can learn from history to inform and inspire campaigns to end gender-based violence:

Opinion | Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists

"As some women in the party are realizing, there’s a big difference between being useful and being respected." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/o...

Row over definition of ‘gender’ hangs over Cop30 plans to support women Advocates say conservative states’ push to define gender as ‘biological sex’ would backslide on decade-old language within the UN

“There are some countries that want to push us back to 30 years ago. But we will not accept anything less than what we already have.” Lorena Aguilar on the familiar fight over the term "gender" as a way to stall productive action on equality. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I wrote about Tunisian anti-fascism and the messy solidarities between French leftist women and the nationalist movement for @newlinesmag.bsky.social. The first piece of my dissertation research to live beyond the thesis!

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not seek reelection A shrewd political strategist, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi has had an unprecedented career in Congress. First elected in a special election in 1987, Pelosi went on to become one of the most effective leaders of the Democratic party.

A shrewd political strategist, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi has had an unprecedented career in Congress. First elected in a special election in 1987, Pelosi went on to become one of the most effective leaders of the Democratic party. n.pr/4oNT0F6

Britain Is Having the World’s Most Extreme Immigration Debate The British discourse makes even the Trump administration look moderate.

I wrote something with the wonderful @mcslaven.bsky.social about how the immigration debate in the UK has becoming so mind-bogglingly radicalised.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...

U.S. Government Fails to Report to Congress on WPS Progress - Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security The United States government was required by law to submit a report to Congress on its progress towards its Women, Peace, and Security commitments yesterday. It didn’t.  The failure of the Administrat...

"The United States government was required by law to submit a report to Congress on its progress towards its Women, Peace, and Security commitments yesterday. It didn’t." giwps.georgetown.edu/2025/11/01/u...

President Kais Saied is making Tunisia an ever more repressive authoritarian regime.

He’s placed suspensions on FTDES (leftist economic think tank), ATFD (feminist NGO) & Nawaat (leftist media outlet).

All 3 groups, ironically, had many members who cheered his coup in 2021. 🧵

1/6

Without the federal government, almost no money exists to fight domestic violence Work to prevent intimate partner violence, feed families in shelters fleeing abuse or help survivors file for legal protection would not exist on the scale it does today if the federal government step...

The disruption the Trump administration has wrought on this critical public safety and public health infrastructure is unprecedented, threatening a framework built over a half-century.

Women’s peace activism has never been monolithic - LSE Women, Peace and Security blog On the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which defined the “WPS Agenda” in 2000 it is worth remembering that the scope and nature of women’s peace activism has always been conte...

I wrote earlier this year for @lseblogs.bsky.social about what plurality looked like in the women's peace movement 100 years ago (and not that much has changed): blogs.lse.ac.uk/wps/2025/03/...

Forgetting WPS: On Being Careful What You Wish For - IPI Global Observatory We concluded our recent book, Governing the Feminist Peace, with an exhortation to “forget WPS”—to abandon attempts to force coherence onto an agenda that had become so sprawling and intricate over it...

An excellent 1325 Anniversary reflection from @paulcinnamon.bsky.social and @drljshepherd.bsky.social reminding us that a unified Women, Peace & Security agenda is illusory. The WPS community/ecosystem is inherently pluralist: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/10/forg...

Women, Peace and Security Survey - Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) released results from a global survey of nearly 3,000 women in 121 countries—one of the largest samples of women peacebuilders to date. T...

My colleagues at @giwps.bsky.social launched the results from a global survey of women peacebuilders. Of almost 3,000 women working on the front lines, most say they still struggle to access formal halls of power, and have seen decreased funding for their work: giwps.georgetown.edu/resource/wom...

First ladies made history in the East Wing. It was razed for Trump’s ballroom. The East Wing is home to the Office of the First Lady and has played a key role in women’s visibility in the White House.

"This demolition suggests that the current White House does not think that the first lady does anything of value [...] the office itself — they’re not cognizant of the history.” 19thnews.org/2025/10/east...

Bloody Sunday: Soldier F found not guilty of all charges in Bloody Sunday murder trial Soldier F - who cannot be named - was accused of murdering two people in Londonderry in 1972, plus five counts of attempted murder.

"Over 15 years ago, the then British Prime Minister publicly acknowledged the role of British soldiers on Bloody Sunday, yet not one British soldier or their military and political superiors has ever been held to account." www.bbc.com/news/live/cg...

White House says no Putin-Trump summit anytime soon The decision came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Trump’s call for a ceasefire contradicted the understandings he reached with Putin.

Infuriating quote from President Trump: “Both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing.” The Ukrainians are home. A home that’s been invaded by Russia.

Libraries, Criminalization and Organizing "Loving" Public Libraries is NOT Enough

And my pitch for why the public library is more important than ever as an institution in the U.S. - open.substack.com/pub/prisoncu...

Thanks for sharing!!

Congratulations to @mariaressa.bsky.social, as well as the representatives of the Bangladeshi and Venezuelan democracy movements who joined me at the Hillary Rodham Clinton awards at @giwps.bsky.social. Great to spend a day surrounded by people working hard to make their countries better.

I've heard from so many people since we published on Monday saying this article resonated with them. We need more attention to this complete destruction of women's rights programming and the impact it has on women, and on national security.

Trump Erases Women From Foreign Policy The White House has overturned the decades-old bipartisan policy consensus that female empowerment serves U.S. interests.

The Trump administration has abandoned the consensus that women’s participation and perspectives add value to U.S. security policy and operations.

Trump Erases Women From Foreign Policy The White House has overturned the decades-old bipartisan policy consensus that female empowerment serves U.S. interests.

"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...