ABuy tAhnojrasl:i EDlaeynaal O | r t i zO, cJotoshbuera 2A0ll1e8n , Robert U. Nagel, and Jessica M. Smith | March 2023
Introduction
From democratic backsliding in Tunisia, Turkey, Ethiopia, Poland, and Hungary to the rise of far-right
coalitions in Israel and Italy, threats to democracy and civil liberties are accelerating worldwide. For
the past 16 years, democracy has been receding globally, with the share of countries classified by
Freedom House as “free” plummeting from 46 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2021.
At the same time, antidemocratic forces are engaging in organized efforts to roll back the rights of
women, undermining the health of democracies.2 In 2021, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan
withdrew the country from the Istanbul Convention, a legal framework to protect women from violence.
and promote gender equality.3 In 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, whose independence the
ruling Law and Justice party has undermined for years, instituted a “near-total ban” on abortion.
Exploring-the-Links-between-Womens-Status-and-Democracy.pdf (georgetown.edu)
