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Rewind and Reconnoiter: Why Women Scare Autocrats

January 15, 2025
Rewind and Reconnoiter: Why Women Scare Autocrats
Rewind and Reconnoiter: Why Women Scare Autocrats

Rewind and Reconnoiter: Why Women Scare Autocrats

Kathleen J. McInnis and Benjamin Jensen
January 15, 2025

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In 2022, Kathleen J. McInnis, Benjamin Jensen, and Jaron Wharton wrote, “Why Dictators are Afraid of Girls: Rethinking Gender and National Security,” where they analyzed how gender can break or bolster authoritarian regimes. We asked Kathleen and Benjamin to revisit their article to see how the relationship between government and gender has evolved since then.Read more below:Image: Photo from Paval Hadzinski Catholic Belarus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsIn your 2022 article “Why Dictators are Afraid of Girls: Rethinking Gender and National Security” you argue that Russia “weaponized gender” to justify the invasion of Ukraine. Can you explain more about this and what

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