As chaos continues to unfold in the Trump administration and the goals of Project 2025are beginning to be met (or at least they’re in sight), I introduced two of my female friends to each other—one runs a significant business in Chicago, the other in Los Angeles. They had never met before, yet as they talked, they realized how much they had in common. Beyond their professional achievements, they have spent years fighting for women—building crisis centers, supporting single mothers, advocating for equal opportunities, financial independence, and the right of women to make their own choices. They are doing the same work, yet each is fighting alone and is unaware of the other’s existence.
That conversation was a revelation for all three of us. How many large and small organizations are battling for women’s rights but operating in isolation, without a common strategy? Meanwhile, conservative movements operate in an entirely different way. They understand that changing the world requires a strategy. Over 100 conservative organizations created Project 2025 to create a detailed plan to reshape the country according to their ideology.
I’ve seen the results of this kind of coordination before. Although Project 2025 and similar conservative initiatives in the US and Russia operate in vastly different political and cultural contexts, the strategy is the same: to form and maintain an ideologically monolithic state through carefully orchestrated personnel policies, long-term strategic planning, and by consolidating power structures under one worldview.
However, as a former Russian parliamentarian, I also know that coordination cuts both ways. We have a mixed electoral system in Russia, significantly affecting how deputies work. Half of the parliament is elected through single-member districts, while the other half comes in through party lists. It might seem like there’s no real difference, but in reality, the gap is enormous. A deputy from a single-member district wins their seat through personal effort—meeting with voters, explaining their position, and proving themselves as a politician.
Meanwhile, those elected through party lists often make it into the Duma simply because their party secured enough votes. People vote for a brand, an ideology, or a party leader—not necessarily for the individuals on that list. I ran in a single-member district—one of the largest in the Moscow region. It was a genuine tough fight: against candidates from other parties, against competition within my own party, and against all the challenges of running a campaign. I made it through and won because people knew who I was and believed I could make a difference. I was known from the talk show I’d had on Russian television that touched on women’s rights, gender equality, and social issues. And when I left television, I didn’t walk away from these issues—I became the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow region. That gave me a deep, firsthand understanding of the system, how the government works, the gaps, and what needs to change.
So when I got to the Duma, my voice was louder than most. My team fought for a domestic violence prevention bill. Conservative politicians tried to block it, calling it “unnecessary.” I was labeled a “Western agent,” and aggressive smear campaigns were launched against me. I heard arguments that should have been left in the Dark Ages—if he hits you, it means he loves you, that domestic violence is a private matter and the government has no place interfering, that if a woman stays with her abuser, it’s her own fault. But I found allies—women willing to fight, I brought them together—and suddenly, the law started moving forward. The draft of the bill, for example, was written by lawyers who had spent years defending domestic violence survivors in court. Who else would better understand the loopholes and weaknesses of the existing legal system? Parent organizations mobilized grassroots support, organizing actions across the country. Journalist colleagues helped shape public opinion, ensuring the issue remained in the media spotlight. Influencers amplified the message through social media, ensuring it reached younger audiences. I used my position to lobby for the bill at the highest levels of government, working to secure political backing. It was a coalition of expertise, activism, and influence—a coordinated effort that turned a long-ignored issue into a political priority. That experience reinforced what I now see as a crucial truth: when we work in isolation, we are easy to ignore. But when we come together, we become impossible to overlook.
We—activists, human rights advocates, policymakers, journalists, lawyers, educators, public voices, and all those who refuse to accept the rollback of women’s rights (and so many others under the current administration)— must come together similarly! We need Project 2028. We need our own movement—not just a loose network of activists but a powerful coalition capable of influencing politics, legislation, education, and the media.
The national structure I envision will take on three key tasks: legislative protection of women’s rights, media leadership, and strategic support for activists. We need strong legal initiatives that protect women from violence, secure their reproductive rights, and promote economic policies that ensure their financial independence. We need a media strategy to counter propaganda, expose disinformation, and shape public opinion. We need a support infrastructure—crisis centers, legal assistance, and rapid-response mechanisms.
It is not an abstract idea. It is a matter of survival. There is power, a real POWER (Protecting Our Women’s Equality & Rights)—in collective action. It’s past time that the coming together began.
About the Author: Oxana Pushkina is an international expert in women’s rights, gender equality, and social policy. She’s also a former deputy in the Russian State Duma and a former member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), where she served on the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, advocating for women’s and children’s rights; she now lives in the US. Pushkina is also a Public Voices Fellow with Equality Now and The OpEd Project.