A nation must think before it acts.
It has been said that if you wish to change a society, then change the role of women in that society, and in the current debate over political transitions in the Middle East, one of the central issues has been the roles of women in Middle Eastern societies broadly but also in the political process in particular. How will women fare in the new Middle East? This conversation will focus on these and other issues, and will be grounded in Dr. Sarah Bush’s ongoing research on the politics of women’s political participation in the Middle East.
Sarah Bush, a Senior Fellow with FPRI’s Project on Democratic Transitions, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Temple University. Bush’s research and teaching interests include international relations, democracy promotion, non-state actors in world politics, and gender and human rights policy. Her forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press, The Taming of Democracy Assistance, explores how and why foreign aid programs supporting democracy in the developing world have evolved over time. Her research has also been published or is forthcoming in the journals International Organization and International Studies Quarterly. Prior to her arrival at Temple, Bush was a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. She also served as the executive director of a non-profit organization that engages young Americans on global issues. Bush holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.