Saskia Brechenmacher is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, where her research focuses on gender, civil society, and democratic governance in the United States and globally. She obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research focused on resistance against women’s political participation in new democracies (with a specific focus on Kenya).

She has advised major governmental and private funders on strategies to advance women’s political participation and defend civic space in countries experiencing democratic backsliding. Her writing has been published in Democratization, Foreign Policy, Just Security, National Interest, Open Democracy, World Politics Review, and elsewhere. She is the co-author (with Katherine Mann) of Aiding Empowerment: Democracy Promotion and Gender Equality in Politics, published with Oxford University Press in 2024.

Read more from Saskia Brechenmacher:

Saskia Brechenmacher and Caroline Hubbard, “Breaking the Cycle of Gender Exclusion in Political Party Development,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and National Democratic Institute, 2020. https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/03/24/breaking-cycle-of-gender-exclusion-in-political-party-development-pub-81345