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Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs on stage

Luke Combs, politics and healing our nation's divide

Red elephants and blue donkeys

America's two-party system is failing us

J.D. Vance and Matt Gaetz talking to each while walking

Trump’s kakistocracy invites possible catastrophe

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.

Louise Dubé

Louise Dub\u00e9
  

Executive Director, iCivics

"Investing in the civic education of our youth is essential if we are going to sustain and strengthen our constitutional democracy. I’m particularly inspired by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor—who founded iCivics to ensure that the practice of democracy is learned by each new generation—and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who has picked up this mantle."

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Pete Hegseth walking in a congressional hallway

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be defense secretary, and his wife, Jennifer, make their way to a meetin with Sen. Ted Budd on Dec. 2.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Hegseth is the wrong leader for women in the military, warn women veterans and lawmakers

Originally published by The 19th.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Pete Hegseth tries to persuade senators to support him to lead the Department of Defense in the Trump administration, several lawmakers, women veterans and military advocates warn that his confirmation could be detrimental to women in the military and reverse progress in combating sexual assault in the Armed Forces.

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disinformation spelled out
TolikoffPhotography/Getty Images

Listening in a time of disinformation

The very fabric of truth is unraveling at an alarming rate; Howard Thurman's wisdom about listening for the sound of the genuine is not just relevant but urgent. In the face of the escalating crisis of disinformation, distortion and the unsettling normalization of immoral and unethical practices, particularly in electoral politics and executive leadership, the need to cultivate the art of discernment and informed listening is more pressing than ever.
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Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the Oval Office

President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden meet in the Oval Office on Nov. 13.

Jabin Botsford /The Washington Post via Getty Images

Selfish Biden has given us four years of Trump

It’s been a rough go of it for those of us still clinging to antiquated notions that with leadership and power should come things like honesty, integrity, morality, and expertise.

One look at any number of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and it’s clear those things no longer matter to a great number of people. (Hell, one look at Trump himself and that’s painfully, comically obvious.)

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Notre Dame at night

People gather to watch the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame Cathedral on Dec. 7.

Telmo Pinto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Cherishing our institutions: Notre Dame’s miraculous reopening

We witnessed a marvel in Paris this weekend.

When a devastating 2019 fire nearly brought Notre Dame Cathedral to the ground, President Emanuel Macron set the ostensibly impossible goal of restoring and reopening the 860-year-old Gothic masterpiece within five years. Restorations on that scale usually take decades. It took almost 200 years to complete the cathedral in the first place, starting in 1163 during the Middle Ages.

Could Macron’s audacious challenge — made while the building was still smoldering — be met?

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