Women's Discussion Group

PFC's Discussion Groups are moderated forums with pre-selected topics. Anyone who wishes to participate in these discussions is welcome to do so.

This group is meant to be a space for women within PFC to meet and discuss whatever topics are of most interest. Meeting topics will be posted in advance, but please feel free to bring along topic or activity suggestions for future! 

April's Topic: 

We’ll be discussing the role of women’s movements in support of democratic values.

“It turns out that frontline participation by women is a significant advantage,

both in terms of a movement’s immediate success and in terms of securing

longer-term democratic change. Mass movements in which women

participated extensively on the frontlines have been much more likely to

succeed than campaigns that marginalized or excluded women. Women

have been much more likely to participate in nonviolent mass movements

than in violent ones, and they have participated in much greater numbers in

nonviolent than in violent campaigns. To explain why women’s frontline

participation increases the chances that a movement will succeed, therefore,

one must first understand what makes nonviolent movements fail or

succeed.”

From The Revenge of the Patriarchs: Why Autocrats Fear Women

By Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks

Foreign Affairs, March/April 2022