Feminist Foreign Policy

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Honoring Dianne Feinstein’s Legacy; India’s New Gender Quota Law Is a Win For Women

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Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: To honor Senator Feinstein’s legacy, let’s pave the way for a new generation of women leaders by addressing the barriers women face in politics as candidates and as elected officials; we need to adopt feminist foreign policies, as 16 countries have done around the world; India’s legislature has recently passed a new bill that will reserve one-third of the seats in parliament for women, but gender parity remains far out of reach for most countries; and more.

Telling the ‘Right’ Story: Dina Nayeri on Refugee Credibility

In her newest book, Who Gets Believed?, writer and refugee Dina Nayeri explores the role of credibility in seeking aid, from access to asylum to the criminal justice system. According to Nayeri, the most vulnerable (the uneducated, neurodivergent, etc.) are often deemed the least credible, because they don’t know how to tell the “right” story: the one that could save their life.

“We come at our most wretched moment to other people’s doors. And we should not have to be thinking about how we come across, or how we present right then.”

Sound the Alarm—Sweden Drops ‘Feminist’ and Returns to Mere ‘Foreign Policy’

While the Swedish government has reassured both domestic and international stakeholders that removing ‘feminist’ from the official description of its foreign policy will not affect its commitment to gender equality, there are many who mourn this change.

As feminist activists and officials working all over the world to advance this approach, we mourn the loss of the world’s first feminist foreign policy, an effort that has, in our view, had an important global impact.

G7 Commitments to Gender Equality: Will Leaders Back Words with Action?

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The June G7 summit focused on climate change and the environment, energy solutions, pandemic preparedness and response, food security, foreign and security policy, and a just transition, as outlined in the outcome document, or communique.

The communique also included important language and some policy adherence on gender equality, there were few tangible and financial commitments.

Secretary Madeleine Albright on Her Legacy as a Women’s Rights Champion: ‘I Decided I Would Make Women’s Issues Central to American Foreign Policy’

Madeleine Albright, the first woman U.S. secretary of state, died of cancer on Wednesday, Mar. 23. She was 84 years old. She served many roles in the executive branch throughout her storied career, including President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations and later his secretary of state.

As a tribute, we compiled some of her best remarks about her work as a women’s rights champion. Rest in power, Secretary Madeleine Albright.

Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

Will Ukraine Bury Feminist Foreign Policies or Will It Reveal Their Power?

In Ukraine, once again, the rules of conscription and refuge are following a familiar pattern: Men to the front, women and children to shelter, inside and outside the country. This highlights how conventional our expectations still are when it comes to war.

Now is the time to insist on gender equality at any future or current negotiating tables and centering the voices of those who have been most directly affected by conflict. But the proponents of feminist foreign policies also need to ensure that an understanding of the gendered implications of this conflict informs the policies that are pursued today.

The Feminist Peace Initiative Urges Intersectional Feminist Principles in U.S. Foreign Policy

The Feminist Peace Initiative, co-founded by MADRE, Women Cross DMZ and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, challenges and reimagines a U.S. foreign policy in the interests of all people and the planet.

“The conditions people flee—economic, violence—are push factors often created by U.S. policies, and exacerbated by the climate catastrophe, a result of corporate extraction or militarized pollution.”