Gender Equality Archives

Robust Gender Analysis Will Be Key to Effective US Policy Development

As the Biden-Harris administration begins to develop and implement gender-focused policies across the federal government, it is a good time to deepen commitments to gender equality in policymaking, and fully empower the White House Gender Policy Council. In foreign policy and national security, this means both implementing existing requirements for gender analysis across the relevant agencies and ensuring that those requirements apply to all government decision-making.

Current Legal Framework for Gender Analysis

There are currently three laws that mandate gender analysis as part of foreign and/or development policy. These laws, however, are agency- or issue-specific, and do not provide an overall government requirement to use gender analysis. The laws are:

The Women Peace and Security Act of 2017 (WPS Act) ensures that the U.S. promotes the meaningful participation of women in mediation and negotiation processes seeking to prevent, mitigate, or resolve violent conflict. To accomplish this, among other things, the WPS Act mandates the use of gender analysis to improve program design in four key national security and foreign policy institutions: the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.)
The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (WEEE Act) mandates that U.S. international development-cooperation policy shall be gender-focused, and affirms women’s right to own and control land and property, to live free of violence, and to access the financial tools they need to start and grow businesses. It also requires that all international development work done by the U.S. government (with a focus on USAID) is subject to a gender analysis from planning and project design to measurement and evaluation.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA) references the gender analysis requirements of both the WPS Act and the WEEE Act. It also mandates the participation of women in the capacity-building activities of security-cooperation programs in several ways, including incorporating gender analysis and women, peace, and security priorities into educational and training programs, and integrating gender analysis into security sector policy, planning, and training for national security forces involved in such partnerships. With regard to post-conflict engagement on human rights in Afghanistan, the NDAA further mandates that activities use gender analysis and rigorous monitoring and evaluation methodologies.

While these laws provide guidance to departments with regard to specific activities — gender and conflict, gender and economic opportunity, and gender and development — they are far from an overarching mandate to employ gender analysis across all national security and foreign policy agencies in the U.S. government, and they have yet to be fully implemented.

What is Gender Analysis?

Gender analysis is a socioeconomic analysis of quantitative and qualitative information to identify, understand, and explain differences in access, opportunity, and impact between people because of an individual’s identity. Such an analysis includes looking at a variety of factors, including gender, sex, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, age, economic status, education level, ability, and other factors.

In the context of foreign and/or development policy, a gender analysis examines the differences that exist (or do not) between women, men, girls, and boys in terms of:

access to and control over assets, resources, education, opportunities, and services;
access to and control over technology and the internet;
norms on how people divide their time between paid and unpaid work;
constraints, opportunities, and entry points for leadership roles and decision-making;
prevalence and impact of violence; and
potential differential impacts of development policies and programs, including unintended or negative consequences.

This type of analysis takes into account how women and men live and work, what they do to support their families and communities, and the constraints that they are under in doing so. Gender analysis should also include conclusions and recommendations to inform national security policies and interventions to 1) narrow these differences based on gender, 2) increase gender equality, and 3) improve the lives of women and girls.

Next Steps

While these mandates for gender analysis exist, and the White House announced the formation of the White House Gender Policy Council, it’s unclear how gender analysis will inform U.S. government policies. In order to ensure impact, we recommend the Biden-Harris administration take the following steps:

Empower and fund the White House Gender Policy Council: While previous iterations have focused on domestic issues and departments, the new council needs to ensure a partial focus on foreign policy and, more importantly, ensure that the United States is consistent across domestic and international policies regarding women, girls, and gender equality. U.S. values at home must match the values we promote across the globe, whether it is preventing gender-based violence or providing access to comprehensive reproductive health care or economic opportunity.
Embed gender expertise in each department at the highest level: All departments should ensure responsibility for the gender portfolio and agenda at the highest possible level by designating a full-time point person on these issues, reporting to the secretary or agency head. These gender advisors should play a critical role in effective policy and program development and should have gender expertise. While the White House Gender Policy Council is a great first step, this is not enough to develop and implement government-wide, gender-focused policies.
Ensure gender training for all staff: All national security and foreign policy entities should create at least one entry-level course on gender analysis for staff. In addition, a gender focus should be integrated into all courses at the Foreign Service Institute, USAID University, and military schools and academies. This includes training for incoming Foreign Service officers. Additional, ongoing gender training should be available by sector, in the field, and online. This is in addition to the requirement of the WPS Act that “appropriate” personnel receive training in conflict prevention, protecting civilians, and international human rights law.
Require gender analysis: The president should mandate gender analysis in every decision memo that comes to him and that goes to the heads of foreign policy and national security entities. The President’s Daily Brief should include a gender analysis of each issue presented. Further, gender analysis should be used to analyze the impact of government funding and resources, policy frameworks, and their implementation. There must be new ways to measure accountability regarding the participation of women in security, political, and economic processes, and to track U.S. government budget expenditures, as well as measure outcomes. Further, all relevant entities should collect sex-disaggregated data about program implementation and impact and make it available publicly.

This is a critical time for the U.S. government to focus on gender equality, as well as the rights of girls and women in the United States and around the world. As the Biden-Harris administration prioritizes issues such as COVID-19 recovery, economic relief, climate change, and racial equity, a strong White House Gender Policy Council and gender analysis will be key to ensuring the policy solutions are effective and have an impact.

This column originally appeared in Just Security.

Feminist Foreign Policy: One Path Forward in U.S.-China Relations

President Joe Biden’s meetings with G7 and NATO leaders on his first foreign trip addressed global challenges including economic growth, climate change, and COVID. China loomed large on the agenda, with both international alliances issuing rebukes of its leadership’s actions at home and on the world stage. As Biden wrote in the Washington Post, it is critical to demonstrate that democracies — not authoritarian regimes — are best positioned to meet these challenges and threats, whether “ending the COVID-19 pandemic everywhere, meeting the demands of an accelerating climate crisis, or confronting the harmful activities of the governments of China and Russia.”

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the administration’s foreign policy goals in March, he highlighted China as a top priority: “Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be, collaborative when it can be, and adversarial when it must be.”

As the U.S. government reconsiders the contours of its relationship with China, the Biden-Harris administration’s renewed global diplomacy presents a unique opportunity to engage with China from a position of strength. Alongside American innovation, military might, and global partnerships, the United States also should showcase its deepened commitment to gender equality and women’s leadership as a driver of prosperity and resilience. Such a position would solidify the U.S. role as a global standard-setter. At the same time, it would empower the emerging Chinese feminist movement.

The United States can leverage the power of example to emphasize the importance of women’s leadership for robust civic engagement and economic growth. The U.S. Cabinet, for instance, is gender-balanced, with women leading key agencies: Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. Collectively, these officials influence U.S. economic and trade policies and global economic engagement.

Beyond representation, the administration is committed to policies that promote gender equity and equality. As defined by a civil society coalition, feminist foreign policy seeks to be transformative and to imbue a rights-based approach across foreign policy with the overarching goals of gender equality, human rights, bodily autonomy, peace, and environmental integrity.

An Opening for Feminist Progress in China?

In addition to the U.S.-led resurgence of alliances and a renewed commitment to democratic principles, a confluence of events presents an opening to empower China’s growing feminist voices: domestic demographic woes, a crackdown on feminist forums, and tacit acknowledgement by Chinese President Xi Jinping that “wolf warrior diplomacy” has not been successful in projecting strength or commanding respect internationally.

Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Public Security released preliminary statistics revealing that new birth registrations fell by 2.5 million from 2019, a year with the lowest recorded birth rate since 1949. This is the fourth straight year of decline with overall population growth slowing to a near halt. In a major policy shift last month, married Chinese couples may have up to three children vs. the two-child limit in place since 2016.

Like that earlier policy shift, this is not expected to increase the birth rate to address the economic risks stemming from a rapidly aging population. Chinese officials are now weighing lifting restrictions on childbirth by 2025. But given career choices, cost-of-living, and gender norms related to who is primarily responsible for care, Chinese women are not interested in increasing family size. In an online poll about the new policy, 29,000 of 31,000 respondents said they would “never think of it.”

Meanwhile, analysts say, both online and offline activities of feminists have given life to a grassroots mobilization in China not seen since the 1989 pro-democracy movement. In April, Beijing shut down 10 feminist social media platforms, which the government said promoted extreme political views and ideology. The blocked forums reportedly promoted women’s empowerment, as one journalist explained, by the “shunning [of] activities seen as centered upon or designed to benefit men.”

This was not the first targeting of feminist activists. On March 6, 2015, two days before International Women’s Day, five feminist activists were arrested for demonstrating against sexual harassment. The “Feminist Five” were held for more than a month and only released after international pressure, including from then-Vice President Biden.

At the same time, Xi has thrown cold water on “wolf warrior diplomacy,” a recent movement among Chinese diplomats to push back against any “deliberate insult” and defend China’s “national honor and dignity.” China’s wolf warriors are government officials who aggressively counter any criticism and hit back against perceived violations of its core interests with trade measures, travel bans, and diplomatic protests. Recently, Xi told senior party leaders to change the way they communicate with the world, and to “be open and confident, but also modest and humble.” As a result, many think the moment is ripe for a new way of engaging with both China’s government and its people.

Moving Forward From a Position of Strength

The Biden-Harris administration can take advantage of this moment to apply a feminist foreign policy lens in building on successes within the United States, sharing expertise abroad, and leading by example.

First, the United States can collaborate to address gender-based violence. Late to the table on these issues, China’s first legal prohibition against sexual harassment was enacted in 2005, and a legal definition of sexual harassment was not set forth in the country’s Civil Code until 2020. A law prohibiting domestic violence was not enacted until 2015. U.S. advocates provided technical expertise on addressing domestic violence via the U.S. China People-to-People Exchange and other U.S. based programs. Next steps could include strengthening implementation of the legislation by working with local law enforcement, the judiciary, and legal and health-care professionals.

Despite laws prohibiting sexual harassment, a Chinese women’s rights organization found only two court cases alleging sexual harassment from 2010 to 2017, and both failed. Things may be changing. In March 2021, a Shanghai court awarded approximately $15,000 in a sexual harassment suit to a woman whose colleague had sent disturbing text messages almost daily for six months.

A second avenue for empowering women could be opened in efforts on climate change. Because of their roles in many parts of the world — collecting water or as smallholder farmers, for example — women often are the first to recognize the impact of climate change and devise creative solutions as they wait for their government to make bigger, structural changes. Right now, women are absent from key conversations about climate change policymaking. The U.S. and Chinese governments could ensure women are represented in climate change negotiations and that the solutions proposed take into account their unique experiences and responsibilities as managers of household resources and community ecosystems. Women’s on-the-ground knowledge is needed to both inform and dramatically impact environmental policy.

Third, the United States can support women’s economic participation at home to increase competitiveness with China. One of the strengths of the U.S. economy is the diversity of its workforce and the number of women-owned and -led businesses. The U.S. government should continue to support the COVID-19 pandemic recovery and rebuilding of the U.S. economy, with a special focus on women. Retail, travel, and hospitality industries – fields dominated by women – were hit the hardest during the pandemic, with many women laid off or leaving the workforce to care for children when schools and childcare centers closed. As the world rebuilds, it is important for the United States to lead by example by expanding the care sector and increasing workplace flexibility. Improving opportunities for women makes the U.S. better able to compete with China while lifting the U.S. as a standard bearer for women in the workplace.

Fourth, shoring up gender equity in trade is a proven model that can strengthen the U.S. government’s negotiating position. We need look no further than the country’s northern border — Canada has prioritized gender equality in trade negotiations. For example, provisions referring to cross-border trade in services prohibit gender-based discrimination related to licensing and professional qualification requirements and procedures. The U.S. government could take similar positions in trade with China to improve workplace conditions for Chinese women.

Fifth, as the United States challenges China to do more on human rights and democracy promotion, the U.S. has several options to advance its argument. The increasing role and stature of women in government provides a powerful example. The Department of State’s annual International Women of Courage Awards are already used to highlight the efforts of individuals working to increase women’s political and human rights. To date, there have been five awardees from China.

As it marks the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, and prepares for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China looms large on the geopolitical stage. The upcoming anniversary of the September 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action offers another powerful opportunity to highlight the progress that countries have (and have not) made on women’s equality and human rights, and to assess a path forward. Reports of the Chinese government’s use of forced birth control and sterilization of Uighur women are human rights abuses that must be addressed in the public arena.

Finally, public diplomacy wields power, and now is the time to use it. Restoring and strengthening programs cancelled or weakened under the previous administration will deepen knowledge, create shared experiences, and build relationships between individuals who will be called upon to inform and navigate the U.S.-China relationship in the coming decades. These professional, educational, and inter-parliamentary exchanges include the Fulbright China Program and the U.S.-China People-to-People Exchange.

In reformulating U.S. relations with China, the Biden-Harris administration should use every tool available and make good on its stated commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment by elevating the role of feminist organizations in China and the voices of women in both countries.

This column originally appeared in Just Security.

A Laser Focus on Women’s Rights Is Key to Sustainable Afghan Peace

As the U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden has vowed to continue support for Afghan women and girls “by maintaining significant humanitarian and development assistance.” Further, on a visit to Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken firmly stated that the U.S. will continue to advocate “for equal rights for women, including their meaningful participation in the ongoing negotiations and their equal representation throughout society.” The importance of this focus is highlighted by the recent horrific attack on a school in Kabul, killing 50 people, many of them women and girls.

The Women, Peace, and Security Act (WPS Act), enacted in 2017, commits the United States to increase the participation of women in peacekeeping and security operations, and to support the inclusion of female negotiators, meditators, and peacebuilders around the world.

The WPS Act is critical to fulfilling the U.S. commitment to women and women’s rights in Afghanistan. It is important for the United States to use all possible tools in this regard, given the difficulties and uncertainty of a lasting and equitable peace with the Taliban. That includes continued support for the four women who are part of the Afghan government delegation to peace negotiations: Habiba Sarabi, former governor of Bamiyan province; Fatima Gailani, president of the Afghan Crescent Society; Sharifa Zurmati Wardak, a journalist and former member of the Afghan Independent Election Commission; and Fawzia Koofi, a member of the Afghan Parliament. They are emblematic of women leaders and advocates in Afghanistan: smart, committed, and dedicated to building a strong future for all Afghans.

There is ample evidence that when women participate in peace talks, outcomes are more sustainable. When women are engaged in peace processes, peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years.

I have seen firsthand the impact of women’s leadership across Afghan society. From 2012 to 2013, I served at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, where I focused on women and civil society, and traveled extensively to work with individuals and organizations advancing the role of women in Afghan society. I met women and girls all over the country, working to build a stronger and more equitable society. They were teachers, businesswomen, journalists, civil society activists, health care workers, students, and government employees. Afghan women have been key players in reshaping Afghan society, building on their history. These women have been advocates throughout the lengthy process of engaging with the Taliban for a ceasefire and for protecting fundamental rights.

However, the presence of the four women alone in the Afghan delegation is not enough to protect women’s rights.

Two more actions can demonstrate the seriousness of the U.S. commitment. First, officials at the highest levels must be laser-focused on the end result of peace negotiations: an agreement that preserves women’s rights. The Biden administration must ensure that any accord has strong provisions that guarantee Afghan women a role in shaping their society. Without such a framework, it is unclear how the United States and other international actors could support an agreement. This means continued diplomatic and development support for women in civil society, media, the private sector, and the public sector. It includes continuing work to ensure that legal frameworks are respected and that policies ensuring the rights of women and girls — whether about access to finance, education, or health — are implemented.

Gender Analysis

Second, every plank of a proposed agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban must be analyzed with a gender lens. Amid a process that will reshape Afghanistan’s policy and legal framework for years to come, it is essential to understand the differential impact policies have on women and men, girls and boys.

Using a gender analysis on all aspects of any agreement is important. We often think about access to education or health as the only issues that impact women and girls, but every issue that is the subject of such a negotiation has an impact on women and girls, whether in terms of security, access to services, or demobilization of radical fighters.

Gender analysis looks at quantitative and qualitative information to identify, understand, and explain differences in impact between people because of an individual’s identity. It can examine such differences that exist (or do not) on:

access to and control over assets, resources, opportunities, and services, including education;
access to and control over technology and the internet;
constraints, opportunities, and entry points for leadership roles and decision-making;
prevalence and impact of violence; and
potential differential impacts of development policies and programs, including unintended or negative consequences.

This type of analysis takes into account how women and men live and work, how they support their families and communities, and the constraints that they are under in doing so. For example, a 2012 study by the U.S. Agency for International Development with the Afghan Women’s Capacity Building Organization found that 80 percent of Afghan women have access to a cell phone, almost half owning their own, many of them having acquired it recently and many of them younger women, indicating access was increasing rapidly. But of those who didn’t own a phone, more than half cited “lack of permission from family members as a major obstacle to acquiring one.” That means it is still harder for women to access information. According to a recent gender analysis conducted by CARE, , 45 percent of Afghan women cannot access adequate information about COVID-19, thereby reinforcing existing health disparities.

One way to ensure that this gender analysis is completed in a systematic manner is to embed at least one gender advisor in the U.S. and Afghan delegations. Gender advisors are essential to effective policy and program development. Effective gender advisors have the technical skills, competencies, and experience necessary to provide appropriate, in-depth guidance to integrate a gender lens, and a gender analysis, throughout the process of policy formulation and program development.

Afghan Women Negotiators Urge Representation and Aid Conditions

Afghan women negotiators like Fawzia Koofi and others have asked the U.S. and other international partners to vigorously pursue at least two specific objectives that could at least provide some measure of security and empowerment for women in Afghanistan’s future. First, that they press both the Afghan government and the Taliban to reserve at least 30 percent of elected seats and appointments in Afghan political institutions for women. Second, that international aid to Afghanistan be conditioned on protecting the constitutional role of women in Afghanistan’s governing institutions. Conditioning aid to the Afghan government might provide a very real incentive to ensure women’s rights are protected both on paper and in reality. These are key demands.

In the United States, there is a bipartisan commitment on Capitol Hill to protect the hard-fought gains that women and girls have made since the fall of the Taliban government 20 years ago. Senators Menendez (D-NJ) and Risch (R-ID), the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, both expressed their concerns about the impact of the U.S. decision to withdraw on women and girls.

Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) just introduced a bill to protect Afghan women and girls after the U.S. military withdraws. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the only woman on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has consistently raised the impact of U.S. policy on Afghan women and girls. She was instrumental in the declassification of a National Intelligence Council memo that sets out concerns about the continued rigidity of the Taliban’s views of the role of women and girls, though it also suggests possible opportunities for internal and external pressure that might moderate its policies.

As the process of U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan continues over the coming months, it is essential that the Biden administration ensures that Afghan women are part of the peace process and that every issue in the negotiations is analyzed with an eye towards gender equality and women’s rights.

This column originally appeared in Just Security.

Gender Equality is Fundamental to Promoting Democracy

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting that concluded in late March was focused on the theme of “Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life.” Importantly, at CSW, Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the key connection between women’s leadership and strong democratic government: “The status of women is the status of democracy. The status of democracy also depends fundamentally on the empowerment of women, not only because the exclusion of women in decision-making is a marker of a flawed democracy, but because the participation of women strengthens democracy.”

Indeed, gender equality strengthens democracy. Research and on-the-ground experience shows that democratic institutions such as government ministries, elected decision-making bodies, political parties, and civil society organizations are stronger with gender equality. All must include women’s voices. But the world has a long way to go on this front. In national legislative bodies, 22 percent of parliamentarians, and 20 percent of parliamentary speakers, are women. Furthermore, women hold only 10 percent of political party leadership positions.

As Harris noted, women’s political participation results in tangible gains for democracy. This includes greater responsiveness to citizen needs and increased cooperation across party and ethnic lines. Women’s meaningful participation in politics affects the range of issues considered and the types of solutions proposed. Countries with high marks on civil rights and political liberties have higher proportions of women in national legislatures than countries with low marks. Higher numbers of women political leaders also correspond with higher standards of living, better outcomes in access to education, infrastructure and health, and more responsive government.

In addition to bringing their lived experiences to policymaking, women tend to work in less hierarchical, more participatory and more collaborative ways. Globally, women lawmakers are perceived as more honest and responsive than male counterparts, qualities that encourage confidence in institutions.

Gender Equality and Democratic Principles

There is a global movement to infuse foreign policy and national security with a gender lens. To date, feminist foreign and/or development policies have been adopted by the governments of Sweden, Norway, Canada, France, Luxembourg, and Mexico. Current feminist foreign policy discussions encompass many issues, including climate change, global health, and food security. Missing from much of this discussion is the importance of democratic institutions and governments.

There has been recent, growing advocacy in the U.S. on feminist foreign policy. Some practitioners are focused on incremental change, while others are more radical. The Biden administration has announced several policies and institutional changes which align with proposals from advocates: a White House Gender Policy Council, a commitment to diversity of political appointments, and robust civil society consultation. This emphasis on gender is in contrast to a focus on solely women and girls and a critical step toward institutionalizing structural change.

The following principles provide a framework for progress and are linked to a widening global conversation on feminist foreign policy. They are critical to advancing both gender equality and strong democratic governance.

Representation in politics and public life. As noted above, women are vastly underrepresented in political office and democratic institutions. Yet, beyond increasing the number of women, more feminist voices—men and women—need to champion gender equality in public life. Not every woman is a feminist; not every person with a feminist voice is a woman. Last month, the Violence Against Women Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives with the support and sponsorship of both male and female House members.
Participation and input from those affected by policies. Over the last decade, many governments have focused on responsiveness to citizens’ needs, but often these efforts have been gender-blind. Decision-makers must consider more feminist and women’s voices to better understand the impact of policies and how those policies are perceived. During the 2014-2016 Ebola crisis in West Africa, local women’s organizations identified community needs and informed elected leaders about the health situation in their districts and how best to respond.
Accountability and transparency. A more open government can accelerate gender equality and close critical gaps in information, access, and participation when the experiences of women and girls are taken into account. Elected and appointed leaders, women and men, must prioritize the collection, reporting, and sharing of sex-disaggregated data at every level of government. Kenya’s public procurement policy, for example, reserves 30 percent of government contracts for women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

The overlapping of these joint principles has not always been acknowledged. Doing so would strengthen the movements for both gender equality and for democracy. Funders and implementers of democracy promotion should insist on gender equality as a core democratic principle, while those advocating for feminist foreign policy intentionally work for its implementation through democratic systems and institutions.

Feminist Foreign Policy and Democracy Promotion

In addition to the shared principles above, feminist foreign policy and democracy promotion programs both seek to address structural constraints to equality and correct power imbalances, but those working on the issues often do not see them as related or mutually reinforcing. This is an opportunity to make that connection. Women’s leadership is indeed critical to strong institutions, and electoral quotas have been used to increase women’s access to political decision-making. However, increasing women’s participation or leadership is no longer enough.

As we look forward to a Global Democracy Summit, a declared priority of the Biden administration, the summit’s agenda as well as democracy assistance programs must address gender equality, structural barriers, and power.

First, structural change is needed because civil society organizations, election management bodies, political parties, and governing institutions are unwelcoming to women in many aspects of their day-to-day operations, procedures, and internal cultures. Often, these institutions are structured and operated in a way that is intended, in fact, to protect male incumbents rather than to serve their members and citizens well. For instance, candidate qualifications, such as education level, while gender neutral, disproportionately disqualify women seeking to run. Also, current democracy assistance programming focuses almost exclusively on the training and capacity-building of individual women and the development or strengthening of entities such as legislative caucuses or women’s wings of political parties.

With both a democracy promotion and feminist foreign policy lens, structural changes would include an assessment of and changes to the formal and informal ways civil society organizations, election management bodies, political parties, and governing institutions function. That would include how they handle staffing, share information, and schedule meetings and votes.

Second, power imbalances between men and women, as well as between dominant decision-makers and other marginalized groups such as youth, ethnic and religious minorities, and rural citizens, must be addressed. Current democracy assistance programs almost exclusively include the easiest-to-reach and most eager individual participants, who often have attended many foreign government-funded workshops and meetings.

Conversely, applying both a democracy promotion and feminist foreign policy perspective, outreach and programming would focus on those who are most impacted by government policy (or the lack or abuse of it) and heard from the least. Further, grassroots organizations would receive long-term support to build sustainable movements, which is not current standard practice. The Equality Fund in Canada, a partnership between the government and the private sector, directly funds communities of activists to advance their own solutions to improve women’s rights and gender equality in their own contexts.

This is the time to bring together work on women’s empowerment, gender equality, and democracy promotion. A feminist foreign policy is a framework for transforming how the U.S. government supports democracy abroad and addresses power imbalances that serve as barriers to women’s leadership.

This column originally appeared in Just Security.

Driving Meaningful Impact out of International Women’s Day

Successful companies not only meet their customers’ needs, they invest in innovation and new markets, build communities, and ensure they have a diverse staff. In today’s marketplace, companies play a critical role as corporate citizens and can be trusted partners with the public sector. A focus on gender equality, diversity, and women’s leadership is not just a philanthropic goal, it is central to business success and must be integrated into business operations.

Companies that are committed to equality and sustainability — both internally and externally — can expand market share, and burnish their reputation as good citizens, as consumers look for products reflecting their values. Globally, almost two-thirds of consumers prefer to buy from companies that reflect their personal values and beliefs.

Diverse teams increase profitability, innovation, and the ability to identify new markets and opportunities. A McKinsey and Co study found that companies in the top 25 percent for gender diverse executive teams were over 20 percent more likely to exceed average profitability. Diverse teams help companies benefit from different viewpoints and avoid missteps, such as Gucci’s launch of a sweater during Black History Month that reinforced racial stereotypes and Apple’s programming of Siri to respond inappropriately to user questions about sexual harassment.

There are other concrete steps that companies can make to achieve meaningful success through their equity strategies. Companies should buy more goods and services from women-led and other diverse businesses. Companies should identify barriers in their own systems, such as cumbersome and lengthy application processes, that prevent diversity in supply chains. For example, Walmart leverages its size and scale to source more from women-owned businesses, but this type of supply chain diversification doesn’t have to be limited to large organizations.

Companies can also partner with the public sector to develop strong enabling and legal environments critical to women’s success, including skill development and laws that make it easier for women to access quality education, child care, and health care. Legal frameworks that ensure non-discrimination, and protect against sexual harassment, assault and violence are good for business as they help attract and retain talent.

Enhancing enterprise-wide equality and diversity are not only the right thing for organizations to prioritize, but this effort is foundational to business success.

Women Entrepreneurs in the Year of COVID

While COVID has upended everyone’s lives, women have borne the brunt of the pandemic in so many ways. COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated gender inequalities and many of women’s economic gains have come to a standstill. Women business owners and entrepreneurs have suffered more than their male colleagues, as have women workers who have absorbed 54 percent of job loss despite comprising 39 percent of the global workforce. The public sector, private sector and civil society can all act to halt these losses. This article focuses on the impact COVID has had on women entrepreneurs and policies to address these issues.

Globally, the over 250 million women entrepreneurs drive growth, creating jobs and economic opportunity. In the U.S., more than 25 percent of small businesses have closed since December. Among those still operating, many fear for their futures, with only half saying they could survive another year under current economic conditions. Women are more likely than men to own businesses in sectors hard-hit, such as restaurants, personal services, and retail. Further, women and people of color often lack the same access to capital as White men whose businesses are more established.

According to a survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, only 47 percent of American women business owners rated their business health as “good,” while 62 percent of male owners said the same. Just 49 percent of these women expect revenues to increase in early 2021, a 14 point decrease from earlier in 2020. Only 32 percent of women-owned small businesses plan to increase investments in the coming year, compared to 39 percent of their male counterparts.

Similarly, Babson College’s Diana International Research Institute conducted a series of surveys to understand the business challenges faced by women entrepreneurs during the pandemic. The surveys found 67 percent said revenue had dropped; 23 percent closed down their businesses permanently, while 26 percent reduced employees’ hours and 38 percent preferred low interest federal loans to assist their businesses.

Findings were similar globally. A Cherie Blair Foundation survey of women in entrepreneurship mentoring programs reflected that 93 percent were negatively impacted by COVID, with 43 percent reporting reduced or no access to customers. WEConnect International, a global network connecting women-owned businesses to qualified buyers, also surveyed its members. That survey found 82 percent negatively impacted by the pandemic between April and June 2020, with 84 percent reporting decreased sales/revenue. And similar to U.S. women business owners, these entrepreneurs reduced the amount of time spent on work due to increased caregiving responsibilities (25%).

Government programs to address COVID-related financial stresses did not reach firms owned by women and men equally. While women own 40 percent of U.S. businesses, just 16 percent of firms receiving Paycheck Protection Program loans are female-owned. Similarly, 24 percent of the women surveyed by WeConnect said they were unable to access needed additional resources.

But, despite these daunting statistics, entrepreneurship is up. As of December 2020, there were more than 1.5 million new business applications in the U.S., up 82 percent. Many of these businesses are being started by women, whether out of necessity or because entrepreneurship gives them more control.

Key Steps to Support Women Entrepreneurs

The Public Sector plays a unique role developing legal frameworks and setting policy.

Because of this role, the leadership (and membership) of all government bodies and teams focused on COVID-19 response, recovery and future preparedness must be gender-balanced. This is fundamental to an economic recovery that is effective, inclusive and responsive to the needs of women and men, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. Women’s organizations, often at the forefront of community response, must be consulted in this process.

Since women face a disproportionate burden of caregiving, governments develop a stronger policy infrastructure for caregiving, including equitable parental leave, quality and affordable care for children and other family members, and policies promoting equal participation of men and domestic partners in unpaid care and domestic work. Government can also promote investment in the care economy, including increased quality of care jobs. The European Union, for example, directs its Member States to grant maternity leave of at least 14 weeks to self-employed women workers.

Governments need to support closing both the gender and rural/urban digital divides by investing in needed infrastructure and enhancing digital skills development. The pandemic has accentuated the urgent need for connectivity and digital literacy for women entrepreneurs. Those lacking access to the Internet, smartphones and other vital technologies are falling further behind.

With a tailored and gender-responsive approach, governments can also buy more goods and services from women-owned businesses through procurement of goods and services. Kenya’s public procurement policy, for example, reserves 30 percent of government contracts for women, youth and persons with disabilities.

The Private Sector can address challenges faced by women starting and running businesses in terms of access to financial and investment products as well as supply chains.

Access to credit, including credit guarantees, is important for women entrepreneurs who are more likely to see substantially reduced revenue. Moreover, financial services companies can support COVID response and recovery by streamlining access to new financing for women entrepreneurs. The Tory Burch Foundation, in partnership with Bank of America, provides women entrepreneurs in the U.S. the opportunity to access affordable loans through community lenders.

Like the public sector, corporations can commit to buying more goods and services from women-led businesses, and encourage the production of goods and services from the same. The private sector can identify barriers in their own systems, such as cumbersome and lengthy application processes, that prevent diversity in supply chains. For example, Walmart leverages its size and scale to source more from women-owned businesses, seeing this as the “right thing to do” and foundational to providing products and services their customers need. When buying from women-owned businesses is not an option, companies can source from companies offering fair pay and benefits for women employees.

Civil society non-profit and advocacy organizations, academia, business associations and program implementers can foster policy change through the use of research-driven and evidence-based insights and advocacy.

Civil society can underscore the need for the private and public sectors to create a more enabling environment for women entrepreneurs. Where discriminatory laws remain, it can advocate for legal reforms regarding business ownership, access to capital, and non-discrimination. For example, WE EMPOWER, a project of the European Union, UN Women and the International Labour Organization advocated for sustainable, inclusive and equitable policies around women’s economic empowerment in the public and private sectors in G7 countries.

Civil society organizations, business associations and academia can identify the needs of women business owners, create opportunities for sharing useful practices, and provide skills training. Women’s business networks can provide peer-to-peer learning and assist women entrepreneurs as they seek markets for their goods and services. WEConnect enhances the capabilities of women entrepreneurs to transact business globally, and has worked with the Royal Bank of Scotland to develop a supplier diversity code of conduct and concrete plan to increase gender diversity in supply chains.

Across All Sectors and initiatives, it remains important to collect and report data disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity and race to inform policy. This intersectional data helps ensure that resources are provided to those that need it most. This data should include information about access to finance, access to networks, and ability to compete for both public and private sector procurement opportunities.

This article originally appeared on the Diana International Research Institute (DIRI) at Babson College membership platform.

Transforming the US Human Rights Report to Reflect Gender Rights — and Security

President Joe Biden has a record of standing up for human rights across the globe. He has backed Chinese rights activists and defenders, and advocated for full equality for the LGBTI community. During the campaign, he and Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to stand up to the forces of authoritarianism worldwide, rejoin and reform the United Nations Human Rights Council, and place democratic values at the core of foreign policy. Biden told the New York Times, “When I am president, human rights will be at the core of U.S. foreign policy.”

One way his administration can follow through on that pledge is by reversing the politicization of the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (also known as the Human Rights Reports). Another is to add reporting on the status of human rights in the United States. A third is to reject the findings of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, an issue analyzed extensively at Just Security.

The Trump administration damaged the credibility of the annual Human Rights Reports, which previously were considered the “gold standard” of objective information about human rights around the world. It is critical to return to the kind of reporting that accurately and fully addresses human rights issues, especially those faced by women and girls. This is also an opportunity to rethink the reports, so they are more dynamic, reflecting progress toward gender equality and documenting the interplay between the treatment of women and girls and a country’s level of peace, security, and stability.

Background on Human Rights Reports

The United States was a key architect of both the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Further, pursuant to the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974, the Department of State submits human rights reports on all countries receiving assistance and on all U.N. member states. The U.S. began compiling these annual reports in 1976, and they cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights as set forth in the UDHR and other international agreements. In the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, the United States and 188 countries affirmed their commitment to women’s human rights across the political, economic, educational, and health spheres. From 2011 to 2016, the Human Rights Reports included detailed information on women’s reproductive rights.

In February 2018, under Pompeo’s predecessor, Rex Tillerson, Politico reported that State Department officials were ordered to cut back on passages in the Human Rights Reports discussing reproductive rights and violence against women, as well as sections on racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender-based discrimination.

While the framework of the Human Rights Reports remained largely intact during the Trump administration, experts found that reporting downplayed the seriousness of human rights abuses on the ground and was not consistent with reporting by other reliable sources of information. A recent study shows reporting on women’s human rights dropped by a third between 2016 and 2017. In the Afghanistan report, women’s rights and issues were mentioned 195 times in 2016 and only 85 times in 2017.

According to the Asylum Research Centre, the Trump administration omitted or altered critical information, including about torture, reproductive rights, and persecution based on sexuality. For example, the 2019 Eritrea report no longer mentioned widespread sexual violence against women in military training camps amounting to torture, and the forced domestic service of women and girls in training camps amounting to sexual slavery.

Further, in 2019, Pompeo formed his Commission on Unalienable Rights to provide advice on human rights grounded in our nation’s founding documents and the UDHR. The commission’s report ignored advancements in the legal and human rights of racial minorities, women, children, people with disabilities, and the LGBTI community, and declared that religious freedom and property rights are the “foremost” human rights. As a good start, Secretary of State nominee Antony Blinken said during his Jan. 19 Senate confirmation hearing that the Biden administration would reject the findings of that commission.

Opportunities for the Biden Administration

In the 2021 Human Rights Report, in addition to restoring critical reporting, the administration has an opportunity to think more broadly about women’s human rights and embed these issues within the national security context.

The prevalence of gender-based violence in a country is a national security issue. It can predict a nation’s potential for hostility toward other nations, as well as internal political violence and civil conflict. Gender-based violence, as well as the lack of women’s human rights, are not simply problems faced by an individual, family, or community. A study funded by the Department of Defense and published just last year, demonstrates that a country’s commitment to upholding women’s human rights is intertwined with nearly every dimension of national security. Countries that foster gender equality are less likely to go to war or use force first when in conflict. Moreover, higher levels of women’s political participation and personal empowerment at the household level decrease conflict and instability.

Accordingly, we urge the Biden-Harris administration to take four immediate actions.

First, the State Department should restore reporting on maternal mortality and access to reproductive health care. Make no mistake — this is a human rights issue. In 2011, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women decided that U.N. member States have a human rights obligation to guarantee all women timely and non-discriminatory access to appropriate maternal health services. In the relevant case, Pimentel v. Brazil, an Afro-Brazilian woman died from pregnancy-related causes after misdiagnosis and the delay of emergency obstetric care.

Second, such reporting should consistently include quantitative data points on gender-based violence, including the age of marriage. Often, country reports describe current law but not the prevalence of the abuse. For instance, the 2019 Human Rights Report on Colombia includes both the law regarding early and forced marriage and data from UNICEF on the prevalence of these practices, while the same year’s Guatemala report only describes a 2017 national decree prohibiting underage marriage and provides no independent statistics.

Moreover, the reports should include reporting on emerging trends, such as online violence and/or violence against women in politics. One in 10 women in the European Union report cyber-harassment, including unwanted and/or offensive sexually explicit emails or text messages, or offensive and/or inappropriate advances on social networking sites. In a 2020 report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization of national parliaments, 34 percent of women parliamentarians were exposed to torture, ill treatment, and acts of violence, compared with 18 percent of male colleagues. In the same report, 98 cases of violations against women were reported in 2020, up from 85 in 2019.

Third, overarching gender indicators should be added to place the human rights reporting in context. There are several well-established reports with gender data points on education, health, economic opportunity, and political office for virtually every country, such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report, the UNDP Gender Inequality Index, and the World Bank Women, Business and the Law report. Utilizing consistent indicators for each country will help place the status of women and girls in a broader context. As an example, for the last 15 years, the WEF report has tracked progress towards gender equality, ranking 53 countries on four key dimensions and allowing for effective comparisons across and within regional peers.

Lastly, the State Department should begin to report on human rights, including women’s rights, in the United States. In 2010, the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report added the United States to that annual report, given that trafficking occurs in every country, including this one. Considering the U.S. public’s increased focus on issues such as policing and the criminal justice system at home, this reporting is critically important. It will also send a signal globally that, as Biden said, the United States will lead with humility and take its own human rights violations seriously.

Taken together, these concrete actions will demonstrate the new administration’s deep commitment to human rights both at home and abroad, and perhaps begin to rebuild U.S. credibility and diplomatic strength with allies, partners, and adversaries.

This column originally appeared in Just Security.

Concrete Steps to a Feminist Foreign Policy

In order to increase the prospects for peace, stability, and security, and to demonstrate American leadership and commitment to human rights, foreign policy must integrate the goal of gender equality into national security strategies and approaches. The principles of women’s rights, human security, and cooperation, and the need for the actions of the U.S. government to be aligned domestically and around the world are central to a feminist approach to foreign policy. This paper seeks to do one thing: to make recommendations about how a feminist foreign policy could be operationalized within the institutions and policy-making processes of the U.S. government, through the implementation of existing policy and legislation, most notably the Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017 (WPS Act). Feminist foreign policy can also be furthered with new policy and legislation.

The Women, Peace and Security policy framework and its implementation globally over the last 20 years are key drivers of any feminist foreign policy, as witnessed by the origination and development of feminist foreign policy agendas in other countries. This policy framework builds on earlier human rights and women’s movements as well as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It widens the aperture beyond conflict prevention and resolution and supports a “rebalancing” of our approach to global engagement, so that the full range of diplomatic, development, and defense strategies are used to meet U.S. goals and objectives. Women, Peace and Security is a feminist approach to foreign policy because it broadens the definition of security to include human security and address overarching issues such as global health, climate change, and food security.

Since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, the Women, Peace and Security agenda has challenged gendered assumptions about power and conflict resolution. These assumptions include the belief that the use of military force, or hard power, alone makes us more secure than the use of diplomacy, development, and other levers of soft power; and that human dimensions of security are less critical than geopolitics, which should mostly guide foreign policy and national security decisions. The Women, Peace and Security agenda and feminist lens on foreign policy fundamentally question these assumptions.

The recommendations made here for instituting a feminist foreign policy in the U.S. and fully implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda are not possible without strong leadership and political will.

To better advance U.S. national security objectives and to ensure lasting change, a focus on gender equality must be integrated into a broader approach to foreign policy, with regular senior-level attention and the capacity to coordinate different parts of the government with relevant areas of responsibility. As mentioned previously, these recommendations align with feminist approaches to foreign policy and international development agendas of other countries including Sweden, Norway, Canada, France, Luxembourg, and Mexico.

Summary of Recommendations:

Diversify Representation
Prioritize Gender in Information Collection and Analysis
Ensure Input From Those Affected
Reform the Institutional Structure
Increase Accountability of Individuals and Transparency of Institutions
Increase Resources
Utilize Technology

The full paper can be found on the Our Secure Future website HERE.

Reviving the US Commitment to Women’s Rights and Gender Equality: The UN Commission on the Status of Women

President-elect Joe Biden has a history of advocating on behalf of women and girls in the United States and around the world. In 1994, then-Senator Biden co-authored and advocated for the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, landmark legislation to strengthen legal and community-based responses to domestic violence. Further, he introduced the International Violence Against Women Act, which provided a framework for the United States to address gender-based violence globally. During the campaign, the Biden/Harris ticket made strong and substantive commitments to gender equality and to the role of women as leaders. In the first 100 days, we urge the new administration to showcase this leadership at the next annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

What is CSW?

CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Established in 1946, CSW meets each March in New York, and brings together representatives of the U.N. and member governments as well as civil society to promote women’s rights. CSW is an important opportunity for governments to speak to their commitments on women’s empowerment and gender equality. At CSW, governments set out their overall approach to addressing gender gaps, outline relevant accomplishments, and make commitments to future policy initiatives. For example, in 2012, the U.S. government highlighted the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), the first comprehensive and standardized gauge to directly measure women’s empowerment and inclusion in the agricultural sector.

At each session’s conclusion, CSW issues a set of non-binding “agreed conclusions” related to pressing issues facing women and girls. Member States also submit reports tracking their progress toward the goals set out in the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Current and emerging issues of women’s political, economic, and social rights are raised at CSW, and as such, that influences U.N. policy and national policies. CSW has provided a gender lens on many U.N. programs, including those focused on increasing property rights, ending sexual violence in conflict, and increasing access to education, health, and self-determination.

History of U.S. Participation with the Commission

Both Democratic and Republican administrations have used CSW as a platform to signal their approach to gender policies and programs and to announce new initiatives for women and girls. In addition, the U.S. delegation has highlighted individuals and organizations from outside government whom the administration sees as important allies in shaping those initiatives.

At the CSW annual meeting in 2010, for example, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed U.S. leadership on women’s rights and gave a major address on gender equality and women’s rights, with examples of how this approach would be incorporated into Obama administration initiatives on global health, food security, and climate change. In addition to Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer, and senior White House and administration officials, the U.S. delegation included leaders from the private sector and civil society.

The Trump administration, however, utilized CSW to step back from global leadership on gender equality, which otherwise would ensure that everyone has equal opportunity and access to resources. In 2019, for example, acting Deputy Ambassador to the U.N. Cherith Norman Chalet led the delegation and stated, “Let’s be clear – we are not about gender jargon. Today, here at the Commission on the Status of Women, we are about women. Women and girls.” According to news reports, during negotiations on the agreed conclusions, the U.S. sought to prevent the word “gender” being used as a substitute for “women and girls,” haggled over the definition of the word “family,” and tried to restrict wording on migration, technology, and climate change. The U.S. delegation included administration officials from the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Health and Human Services, but no list of public delegates was released.

The Biden Administration

The Biden administration should use CSW65 this March to reaffirm the importance of women’s leadership and gender equality to its foreign policy agenda. According to incoming National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Biden has asked his national security team to “reimagine” national security to address global crises, including inequality in all forms.

As a first step, the 2020 U.S. delegation to CSW should be led by senior administration officials, such as Vice President Kamala Harris or the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield (assuming she has been confirmed). The delegation should also include executive and legislative leaders, and representatives of like-minded partners from the private sector and civil society.

CSW speeches and events should be used to highlight policy or program announcements that reflect a commitment to gender equality at home and abroad. Such announcements should include the creation of a White House Council on Gender Equality, as the Biden-Harris campaign pledged to do, and the designation of key appointments across the government with responsibility for integrating a focus on gender equality into policymaking.

This includes the ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues at the State Department and the senior gender coordinator at USAID. These are more than personnel announcements. These individuals spearhead and guide the work to embed and advance gender equality and women’s leadership across U.S. foreign and development policy. At the Department of State, the Office of the Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues has a mandate to promote the rights and empowerment of women and girls through U.S. foreign policy and leads these efforts in U.S. diplomacy, partnerships, and programs. At USAID, the senior gender coordinator provides guidance on a range of complex government programs and policies to the USAID administrator and other leadership, serves as a liaison internally between the Office of the Administrator and USAID bureaus, missions, and independent offices, and represents the agency both internally and externally regarding gender issues.

CSW is also an ideal backdrop for the United States to reaffirm Biden’s commitment to pursue ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which has been ratified by 189 countries. CEDAW is often described as the international bill of rights for women, but while President Jimmy Carter signed CEDAW in 1980, the U.S. Senate did not ratify it. Only the United States, the Holy See, Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga have not ratified CEDAW.

In the U.S., ratification requires consideration and recommendation of the document by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) and the support of two-thirds of the full U.S. Senate. The last time CEDAW’s ratification was recommended to the full Senate in 2002, then-Senator Biden chaired the SFRC. While ratification is likely an uphill battle, the landscape of women’s political and economic participation (and the U.S. Senate) has changed a great deal since 2002.

Taken together with campaign statements and recent Cabinet-level and senior staff appointments, these actions will demonstrate the U.S. government’s renewed commitment to meaningfully engage with other governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society organizations to further gender equality and women’s leadership.

Gender Advisors Key to Effective Policy

The proposed revisions to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy have received a lot of attention since being released for public comment in mid-August. The revisions raise many issues, one of which is the important role that gender advisors play at USAID missions, regional missions, and country offices as well as DC-based offices and bureaus. Gender advisors also play critical roles at embassies and combatant commands. From my experience, it is essential to effective policy and program development that each embassy, USAID mission, or combatant command have at least one dedicated, full-time gender advisor, with relevant expertise.

From 2012 to 2013, I served as a women and civil society officer at the U.S. Embassy, Kabul, where I focused on women and civil society, and traveled extensively to work with individuals and organizations advancing the role of women in Afghan society. This position was a full-time gender advisor position. I worked across the embassy and the USAID mission to coordinate the U.S. government’s work on women’s leadership and gender equality.

I met women all over the country, working to build a stronger and more equitable society. They were teachers, businesswomen, journalists, civil society activists, health care workers, students, and government employees. I took what I learned from them about their needs, what worked and what didn’t work, and made sure others, both at the embassy and at the State Department, knew about these women and their work. We were able to use their experience as we drafted a mission-wide Gender Strategy.

Because of my contacts with them, we were able to develop a narrative that reflected both the harsh reality of women’s lives in Afghanistan, but also the glimmers of hope and change as women developed institutions and businesses that made a difference. When senior officials visited—both from the State Department and the U.S. Congress—we ensured that these policymakers met with women and heard directly from them.

Based on that experience, here are some key points:

Gender advisors are more effective when they have gender expertise, including the technical skills, competencies, and experience necessary to provide appropriate, in-depth guidance to integrate a gender lens, and a gender analysis, throughout the process of policy formulation and program development. It is critical that these advisors have this expertise before being either deployed to post, or assigned to, the gender advisor position. I firmly believe that my effectiveness was predicated on having substantial expertise and many years of background in the field.

Understanding that it may not be possible for every gender advisor to have extensive expertise and experience when hired, in those circumstances, it is essential that gender advisors have the opportunity to develop and deepen that expertise early in their time on the job. Gender advisors must be given the opportunity and resources (such as time away and funds to travel to the training) to develop this expertise, and their supervisors must justify not providing them with that training opportunity.

From my vantage point, having gender advisors who are not technical experts can actually be harmful to the provision of gender expertise. As we all know, these issues can be complex and thorny, and advice that does not take into account this complexity can be ineffective or even harmful to beneficiaries.

It is also critical that a gender advisor is a full-time position, and not one of many job responsibilities. Again, I believe that being a full-time gender staff person provided me with the ability to focus solely on this broad and cross-cutting set of issues. It was my responsibility to bring a gender lens to what I saw, to the meetings I attended, and to the development of strategies and tactics to support Afghan women and girls.

Gender advisors are a critical bridge to what is happening on the ground and important to informing an effective foreign policy and national security policy. But, they are not the only steps to take. In addition to the work they do, the U.S. government must also invest in training to ensure that all employees in foreign policy and national security understand the importance of a gender lens, and be trained on how to conduct a gender analysis.

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Robust Gender Analysis Will Be Key to Effective US Policy Development

Feminist Foreign Policy: One Path Forward in U.S.-China Relations

A Laser Focus on Women’s Rights Is Key to Sustainable Afghan Peace

Gender Equality is Fundamental to Promoting Democracy

Driving Meaningful Impact out of International Women’s Day

Women Entrepreneurs in the Year of COVID

Transforming the US Human Rights Report to Reflect Gender Rights — and Security

Concrete Steps to a Feminist Foreign Policy

Reviving the US Commitment to Women’s Rights and Gender Equality: The UN Commission on the Status of Women

Gender Advisors Key to Effective Policy

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