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Department of Veterans Affairs building

Project 2025: The Department of Veterans Affairs

The Pentagon

Project 2025: The Department of Defense

Photo of the Department of Homeland Security seal

Project 2025: The Department of Homeland Security

Project 2025 is a threat to democracy

Project 2025 is a threat to democracy

Former President Donald Trump

Project 2025: A cross-partisan approach

The women who lead democracy reform

Sara Bonk, Jackie Salit, Justine Williams
Shakira Mills
By Shakira MillsMar 14, 2022
Shakira Mills
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While women remain significantly underrepresented in government, there is at least one adjacent field in which they have achieved gender parity in leadership: the universe of democracy reform and bridge-building organizations.

In its 2021 Diversity Report, the Bridge Alliance found that half of the executives leading its 100 member organizations are women. (Disclosure: The Fulcrum is a program within the Bridge Alliance, which brings together organizations working toward a healthy democracy.)

To mark Women’s History Month, The Fulcrum is spotlighting just some of the women leading these organizations.

Cheryl Graeve

Cheryl Graeve, National Institute for Civil Discourse

Director of National Programs, National Institute for Civil Discourse

"I do what I do because I believe deeply in democracy, freedom and human rights. I believe that collective opportunities, connections of trust and a full range of ideas/life experiences are important for human thriving and a strong democracy. The women that inspire me include Eleanor Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Barbara Jordan, Carrie Chapman Catt, Iris Stringer Graeve and Mary Ann Graeve."

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Women holding signs to defend diversity at Havard
Diversity, Inclusion & equity

Project 2025: Affirmative action

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Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Rep. Ayanna Pressley

Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Rep. Ayanna Pressley won the Congressional Management Foundation's Democracy Award for Constituent Accountability and Accessibility.

Official portraits

Some leaders don’t want to be held accountable. These two expect it.

Fitch is president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation and a former congressional staffer.

There is probably no more important concept in the compact between elected officials and those who elect them than accountability. One of the founding principles of American democracy is that members of Congress are ultimately accountable to their constituents, both politically and morally. Most members of Congress get this, but how they demonstrate and implement that concept varies. The two winners of the Congressional Management Foundation’s Democracy Award for Constituent Accountability and Accessibility clearly understand and excel at this concept.

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Donald Sutherland, Jane Fonda and others on stage

Donald Sutherland (left), Paul Mooney, and Jane Fonda performing in an anti-Vietnam War FTA (Free The Army) show in the Philippines in 1971.

Stuart Lutz/Gado/Getty Images

This young GI met Donald Sutherland in a bygone era. RIP to an original.

Page is an American journalist, syndicated columnist and senior member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

News of Donald Sutherland's death at age 88 took me back to a day in 1971 when he was protesting the Vietnam War onstage with Jane Fonda and I was one of about 1,000 off-duty soldiers in their audience.

I hoped, in the spirit of John Lennon's anthem, to give peace a chance.

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Woman speaking at a microphone

Rep. Lucy McBath is the first lawmaker from Georgia to win a Democracy Awarrd.

Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Surprise: Some great public servants are actually members of Congress

Fitch is the president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation and a former congressional staffer.

TheCongressional Management Foundation today announced the winners of the seventh annual Democracy Awards, CMF’s program recognizing non-legislative achievement and performance in congressional offices and by members of Congress. Two members of Congress, one Democrat and one Republican, are recognized in four categories related to their work in Congress.

Americans usually only hear about Congress when something goes wrong. The Democracy Awards shines a light on Congress when it does something right. These members of Congress and their staff deserve recognition for their work to improve accountability in government, modernize their work environments and serve their constituents.

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Man climbing a set of exterior steps

The author, Miliyon Ethiopis, following a court’s decision to grant his asylum request on June 18.

U.S. immigration court ruling on statelessness could have wide impact

Ethiopis is a co-founder of United Stateless, a national organization led by stateless people.

I feel like I have been born again, after a U.S. immigration court made a remarkable ruling in my “statelessness” case in June. I hope that my case will have significant, broader implications for other stateless people in America.

Being stateless means no country will claim you as a citizen. We don't belong anywhere. Stateless people are military veterans. We are Harvard graduates. We are Holocaust survivors. There are millions of stateless people around the world, and 200,000 such people in the United States.

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two Black people wrapped in an American flag
Raul Ortin/Getty Images

July Fourth: A bittersweet reminder of a dream deferred

Juste is a researcher at the Movement Advancement Project and author of the report “Freedom Under Fire: The Far Right's Battle to Control America.”

“Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.”
— Langston Hughes, I Too

On the Fourth of July we celebrated many things: our nation’s independence, our democracy and the opportunity to gather with loved ones who, ideally, embrace us for who we are. Yet, this same nation does not always make room for us to live freely for who we are, who we love, what we look like and how we pray. And it is this dissonance that renders the Fourth of July’s celebration a bittersweet reminder of a dream deferred for many of us.

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