Discussion Paper
June 2020

Cover photo: Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom
addresses the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women,
Peace, and Security, in New York, on October 27, 2017.
(Ryan Brown/UN Women)

Council on Foreign Relations
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New York, NY 10065
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Washington, DC 20006
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Understanding
Gender Equality
in Foreign Policy
Jamille Bigio and Rachel VogelsteinDiscussion Paper
June 2020

Understanding
Gender Equality
in Foreign Policy
What the United States Can Do
Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization,
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CONTENTS
1
3
15
17
23

Introduction
Current Approaches
Critiques
Recommendations for the United States
Conclusion

24
29
30
31

Endnotes
Advisory Committee
Acknowledgments
About the Authors

Contentsiii

INTRODUCTION
A growing body of research definitively establishes a link between
gender equality and global prosperity and security. Closing thegender gap in workforce participation could add as much as $28 trillion to the global gross domestic product (GDP).1 Ensuring women’s
meaningful participation in peace processes would make agreements
more likely to last and be implemented.2 Greater numbers of womenin parliament decrease the likelihood of human rights abuses and conflict relapse.3 Equalizing access to agricultural resources for women
could reduce global hunger for up to 150 million people.4 The bottom
line: nations seeking to advance national security, maximize the utility of foreign aid, and bolster stable and democratic partners should
prioritize women’s advancement.
Focusing on women’s rights is not new in the realm of public
policy. Gender equality is a founding principle of the United Nations,enshrined as a universal human right, and a suite of legal frameworks—
including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979, and the 1995
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action—mandate that countries
implement policies to achieve parity. In a rapid global spread, between
1975 and 1998, more than one hundred countries created national
institutional mechanisms on gender equality, ranging from standalone government ministries and national commissions to bureaus anddepartments within larger institutions.5 But these machineries wereprimarily directed at domestic issues rather than foreign policy andnational security matters.
In recent years, however, a growing number of countries have begun
to institutionalize gender equality and women’s empowerment as a

Introduction1foreign policy priority in the areas of diplomacy, defense, aid, and trade.
Nations are adopting action plans, creating funds, appointing envoys,
and setting aid targets to advance gender equality through development
cooperation, training, and diplomatic activities. The most comprehensive effort is the “feminist foreign policy” first articulated by Sweden
in 2014—a designation since adopted by Canada in 2017, France in
2019, and Mexico in 2020—which promises greater commitment togender equality abroad in service of national security at home.6 Luxembourg and Spain have also committed to developing a feminist foreign
policy, and Malaysia indicated it would pursue a feminist foreign policy
in 2020.7 Definitions of what constitutes a feminist foreign policy
differ, but the Swedish model focuses on three “Rs”—rights, representation, and resources for women and girls—and commits to “applyinga systematic gender equality perspective throughout the whole foreign
policy agenda.”8
The United States first articulated its focus on gender equality as
a foreign policy priority during the Barack Obama administration,
which saw the introduction of a suite of policies to advance the statusof women and girls globally in the areas of economic growth, peace andsecurity, and human rights. Legislation to codify the elevation of thatissue has been pending since the 111th Congress (2009–11). In refining its own strategy, the United States has much to gain from analyzing
the gender mainstreaming approaches pursued by other countries.
To strengthen prosperity and stability around the world, the U.S.
government should launch a high-level White House council to elevateand coordinate efforts to advance the status of women and girls, issue agovernment-wide strategy to advance gender equality as a domestic andforeign policy priority, close the gender financing gap, and mainstream
transparency and accountability into foreign policy initiatives. The
United States should demonstrate genuine leadership, adopt strong
policies, and provide sufficient resources that will not only improve thelives of women and girls but also strengthen the stability and prosperityof entire economies and nations. These steps will help the United Statesdraw on the benefits of women’s empowerment globally and thereby
promote international security and global growth.

2

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

CURRENT APPROACHES
To advance gender equality in foreign policy, governments havepromulgated changes in leadership, policy, and resource allocation.
These initiatives vary significantly in terms of where they are housed
within governments, how they are measured, and the extent to which
they are implemented.
LEADERSHIP
Many governments have institutionalized efforts to advance genderequality, including by establishing new mainstreaming roles, appointing women to high-level posts within the foreign policy and security
arena, and making public commitments at the highest level to reinforce
the agenda.
Ambassadors and Envoys for Gender Equality
Over the past decade, several countries have established high-level
positions to promote women’s issues abroad or support the mainstreaming of gender equality throughout the foreign policy apparatus.
In 2009, under the Obama administration, the United States became
the first country in the world to create an ambassador-at-large position
for global women’s issues. Since then, ten countries have created similar roles in their ministries of foreign affairs.9
Senior Posts
In addition to creating designated positions to advance gender equality through foreign policy, many countries have also increased theCurrent Approaches

3

Fi gure 1. FE W COUN TR I E S MEE T BENCHMARK S FORWOMEN I N LE ADER SH I P

Sources: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Women in Politics, 2019; Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom, Member States, 2019.

representation of women in high-level diplomatic, trade, and defense
posts and cabinet ministries. In 2019, the proportion of women ministers worldwide reached an all-time high of 20.7 percent, including ten
countries with 50 percent or more female cabinet ministers: Albania,
Austria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Nicaragua, Rwanda,
Spain, and Sweden.10 Although women remain overrepresented indomestic posts—including social affairs, health, family and youth, environment, education, and women’s affairs—in early 2020, a record thirtyfour countries had female foreign ministers, eighty-four had female ministers of trade, and twenty had female ministers of defense (see figure1).11 In many nations, the proportion of female ambassadors also rose:
although women occupy only 15 percent of ambassadorial posts worldwide, many states have a much higher representation of women as top
diplomats, including 44 percent of ambassadors in Finland, 41 percent in
the Philippines, and 38 percent in Costa Rica.12
Public Commitments
Public commitments from senior leadership can reinforce the government’s dedication to advancing gender equality and signal that doing
so is the responsibility of both men and women throughout the foreign

4

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

policy apparatus. Gender equality initiatives driven by a foreign minister or a head of state can establish a shared agenda that helps shift
culture; consider, for example, the pathbreaking Preventing Sexual
Violence in Conflict Initiative led by former Foreign Minister William
Hague in the United Kingdom (UK) or the commitments to appointa gender-balanced cabinet made by Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau of
Canada and Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia.
POLICY
Some nations have enacted a range of policies to provide guidance, settargets, and increase accountability for their gender equality commitments, including gender equality strategies and national action planson women, peace, and security. In addition, some governments havesought to integrate gender equality commitments into broader policy
documents, such as trade agreements. These steps demonstrate opportunities to integrate a focus on gender equality in diplomatic, development, defense, economics, and trade apparatuses.
Diplomacy
Several countries have adopted explicit gender equality and women’s
empowerment strategies to guide their foreign policy. In 2012, theUnited States launched its first policy guidance on gender equality
in national security and foreign policy under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, promulgating a strategy to elevate the status of
women in the work of the Department of State, including through programming, budget development, monitoring and evaluation, and management and training. In other countries, the foreign ministry leads
an interagency strategy to advance gender equality. In 2016, Australia
unveiled its Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy,
covering all foreign affairs and development assistance, with a focus
on three priorities: women’s leadership, economic empowerment,
and ending violence against women and girls. That same year, Norway
released an Action Plan for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in
Foreign and Development Policy with five priority areas: quality education, political participation, economic rights, elimination of violence,and sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Some foreign ministries also coordinated with other line ministries
to develop government-wide strategies on a range of specific genderequality priorities, from economic empowerment to women’s health.

Current Approaches

5One prominent example: eighty-three nations have developed national
action plans (NAPs) on women, peace, and security, beginning with
Denmark in 2005.13 These plans are informed by UN Security Council Resolution 1325—unanimously adopted in 2000 under the leadership of Namibia—which called for greater representation of womenin peace and security processes and elevated women’s rights on theinternational security agenda. The plans incorporate commitments by
their diplomatic, development, and defense apparatuses, and beyond
to increase women’s participation in peace and security efforts andensure their protection in conflict-affected contexts; across Europe andthe Americas, foreign ministries are most likely to be the lead agencies
tasked with implementation.14 Implementation remains a challenge,
however: fewer than half of the nations with action plans have allocateda budget for execution.

Sweden: A Government-Wide Feminist Policy
In 2014, Sweden became the first country to adopt an explicitly feminist foreign policy. The policy covers three areas:
foreign and security policy, development cooperation, andtrade and promotion. The Swedish government also sees
the mainstreaming of gender equality in foreign policy,
rooted in a rights-based approach, as a tool to achieve othernational and international objectives, including security andeconomic prosperity. The ambassador for gender equality
and coordinator of feminist foreign policy is responsible
for supporting this work throughout the ministry and leads
a team to improve operational planning, policy development, skills development, communication, and representation. Each department and mission abroad also includes
a focal point for the feminist foreign policy. This feminist
approach applies not only to Sweden’s foreign policy abroad
but also to the internal operations of the foreign ministry,including through directives to promote gender equality inrecruitment and appointments within the Foreign Service,improve gender balance in coveted international posts, andprevent and respond to sexual harassment among staff. The

6

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

government funds select targeted initiatives, committing
200 million Swedish krona (SEK) to support the SheDecides
initiative to advance women’s reproductive health and rights,
and announcing 1 billion SEK to implement its 2018–22
global gender equality strategy.

Development
Development agencies similarly have committed to advancing genderequality, including twenty Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) countries that have adopted gender equality strategies within their development agencies.15 Canada and Ireland
adopted gender equality policies for development cooperation as early
as 1999 and 2004, respectively.16 The Japan International Cooperation Agency created gender mainstreaming guidelines in 2002 andformulated an agency-wide development strategy for gender equality
in 2016.17 In 2017, under its Feminist International Assistance Policy,
Canada pledged to place gender equality and the empowerment of
women and girls at the center of its foreign aid, with the understandingthat doing so “is the best way to build a more peaceful, more inclusive
and more prosperous world.”18 In certain countries, those strategies
are mandated by law, signaling a shared commitment by parliaments.
For example, the UK’s International Development (Gender Equality)
Act, which came into force in 2014, sets a legal requirement to givemeaningful consideration to the effect of development or humanitarianassistance on gender equality.

Mexico: The Global South’s First Feminist Policy
In January 2020, Mexico became the first country in the Global
South to launch a feminist foreign policy. The policy lays out anambitious agenda, promising in its first year to develop trainings, workshops, and a feminist foreign policy manual, andby 2024 to achieve employment parity and equal pay acrossCurrent Approaches

7the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where, currently, only one of
the eleven top positions is filled by a woman.19 Even before
2020, Mexico worked to advance gender equality in foreign
policy, particularly through multilateral negotiations—suchas its leadership at the UN Climate Change Conference andits efforts to integrate gender into the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade discussions.20 Mexico’s
feminist foreign policy is guided by five principles: a gender
perspective in foreign policy; parity within the foreign ministry; combating gender-based violence, including within theministry; visible equality; and integrating feminism in all areasof the foreign ministry.21

DefenseMinistries of defense have critical responsibilities to advance women’scontributions to security and ensure their protection from violence;
among the eighty-three NAPs on women, peace, and security worldwide, many include specific commitments for their militaries, police,
and peacekeepers. For example, when the U.S. Congress enacted the
Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, it tasked the Departmentsof Defense and Homeland Security with increasing women’s participation in security efforts and their protection from conflict-related violence, and devising agency implementation plans. Both Global South
countries and donor nations supportive of security sector reform havemade public commitments to increase the participation of women in
the security sector. Some initiatives focus on increased recruitment andretention of women in militaries, police, and peacekeeping forces: forexample, the Canadian government, through its Elsie Initiative (established in 2017 to increase women’s meaningful participation in peace
operations), partnered with the governments of Ghana and Zambia todevelop new approaches to increase the deployment of female peacekeepers.22 Ministries of defense around the world are coordinating to
exchange lessons: in 2017, Bangladesh, Canada, and the UK launched
the Women, Peace, and Security Chiefs of Defense Network to support
the network’s nearly fifty members’ efforts to increase opportunities
for women in the security sector.23

8

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

Economics and Trade
More countries are now using trade policy to advance gender equality.
Since 1990, the number of trade agreements with gender-related provisions has steadily increased, and today seventy-four regional trade agreements reference gender.24 Countries have reinforced their commitment
on the multilateral stage: 124 World Trade Organization members andobservers have endorsed the 2017 Buenos Aires Declaration on Tradeand Women’s Economic Empowerment, which seeks to remove thetrade barriers women face and to foster their economic empowerment.
Some countries have taken a more ambitious approach, including
a dedicated chapter on gender equality in trade agreements. The 2016
Chile-Uruguay Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was the first to havea stand-alone gender chapter, and Chile has subsequently included
gender chapters in FTAs with Argentina, Canada, and in current negotiations with the European Union (EU). Canada incorporated a standalone chapter on gender in its trade agreement with Israel and with the
EU through a trade and gender recommendation; in addition, Canada
and Mexico sought to include greater attention to gender equality in
the NAFTA renegotiation, ultimately with some success.25 Yet despite
those advances, the UN Conference on Trade and Development hascautioned that most existing gender chapters are not binding and do
not fall under the authority of dispute-settlement mechanisms.
In addition, some foreign ministries have prioritized gender equality
in multilateral forums in order to mobilize global attention to and commitments for specific gender priorities. On women’s economic empowerment, for example, the United States hosted the first Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting on Women and the Economy in2011, culminating in the San Francisco Declaration to expand women’s
participation in APEC economies.26 In 2014, under Australia’s presidencyof the Group of Twenty (G20) summit, nations committed to reduce thegender gap in labor force participation by 25 percent before 2025.27

Nigeria: Feminist Foreign Policy at the Country Level
Although Sweden has long emphasized gender equality in its
foreign policy efforts, the adoption of a feminist foreign policy

Current Approaches9in 2014 changed its approach to diplomacy and developmentwith bilateral partners. The Swedish minister of foreign affairs
provided an action plan outlining how to prioritize genderequality in diplomatic relations and increased training, thereby
integrating a feminist approach across every level of the diplomatic corps. In Nigeria, this feminist approach manifests intrade relations, communications, humanitarian aid, and metrics included in political reports to headquarters. The Swedish embassy collaborates with Swedish companies investingin Nigeria to highlight the Swedish domestic experience as amodel for how women’s economic inclusion drives growth.
Sweden is one of the founding funders of the Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, established in 2017, and prioritizes “[ensuring]that all assistance promotes the protection, safety and dignityof affected people, and is provided equitably to women, girls,
men and boys.”28 Sweden is also the largest donor to the Joint
Program on Accelerating Progress Toward the Economic
Empowerment of Rural Women, a regional effort to promotewomen’s economic empowerment.29

RESOURCES
Many governments elevate gender equality to a foreign policy priority
through their budgets by establishing stand-alone funds for women’s
rights programs and organizations, earmarking a percentage of foreignassistance funds to support programs that advance gender equality, or
conducting a gender analysis process for all government funding.
Aid Targets
Many donor countries commit to aid targets to support gender equality, reserving a percentage of foreign assistance funds for this priority.
The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) developed aset of minimum criteria for programs that have either a principal or asignificant focus on gender equality; these criteria are frequently used
as benchmarks for targeting gender equality investments (see figure 2).
Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, for example, aims

10

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign PolicyFi gure 2. GENDER EQUALI T Y I N DAC COUN TR I E S’
AI D (2016–17)

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Current Approaches

11to direct 15 percent of aid to programs with a primary focus on genderand to ensure that no fewer than 95 percent of its assistance programs
have a principal or significant focus on gender. France’s Third International Strategy for Gender Equality pledges to increase aid focusedon gender equality from 30 to 50 percent by 2022.30 The United ArabEmirates has gone furthest, announcing a “100% Women” policy, whichaims to incorporate gender equality in all foreign aid projects by 2021.31
To assess performance, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs andTrade set a goal in 2016 that 80 percent of its aid investments “will effectively address gender issues in their implementation . . . regardless of
their objectives.”32
Despite these targets, however, overall investment in aid projects
that advance gender equality remains low. According to the OECD
DAC, only 4 percent of bilateral aid by OECD nations in 2015–16
was dedicated to gender equality programming.33 Countries often selfreport programs as having a significant or principal focus on genderequality that in fact fall far short of the OECD minimum criteria forgender equality programming. One independent review of seventy-two
projects accounting for $6 billion in gender equality funding foundthat only two met OECD standards.34 Women’s rights organizations
received an even smaller fraction of this aid: OECD reported thatbarely 0.5 percent of the funds allocated to gender equality went to local
women’s rights groups.
Gender Budgeting
Some countries adopt a gender budgeting process to ensure thatwomen and girls benefit from equal resources in both foreign anddomestic budgets. Gender budgeting, introduced in Australia in
1984, typically requires a gender analysis of needs or outcomes, whichis then used to inform funding allocation. Today, at least eighty countries employ some form of gender budgeting, and twenty-three countries have a “prominent” gender budget initiative.35 The structure andimplementation of these programs varies significantly. India institutionalized gender budgeting in 2005, creating a federal institute within
its Ministry of Finance to analyze how public expenditures affectwomen and requiring a gender budget statement alongside budgetary documents.36 In Rwanda, the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning is charged with leading gender budgeting efforts, and a
Gender Monitoring Office evaluates budget outcomes, incorporating

12

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

input from civil society in its annual reports.37 The Canadian Gender
Budgeting Act, passed in 2018, mandates that governments apply agender and diversity lens to policy and program decisions. Austria’s
constitution mandates that its states strive for equality in their budget
management and that they consider gender at all budget levels at every
stage of the process.38

Canada: Feminist Foreign Policy and International Assistance
Canada, following Sweden, became the second country to
explicitly refer to its gender equality efforts as “feminist,”announcing a Feminist International Assistance Policy in2017 alongside a suite of gender equality initiatives, such as
an inclusive approach to trade; a new National Action Plan
on Women, Peace and Security; and the Elsie Initiative for
Women in Peace Operations. Since then, the governmenthas been vocal about gender equality issues on the multilateral stage, using its 2018 Group of Seven (G7) presidency
to put gender equality on the head-of-state agenda for the
first time, integrating gender equality in all areas of G7
work, and creating a G7 gender equality advisory council.
Canada’s feminist policy emphasizes the need for genderand intersectional analysis in addition to the inclusion of
women. Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) has a long history in Canada, beginning with a government commitment
to GBA+ as part of Canada’s response to the 1995 Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action. In the 2000s, GBA+
was mainstreamed across central agencies, and in 2016 thegovernment strengthened accountability metrics, including
by requiring GBA+ memos in submissions to the Cabinet of
Canada and the Treasury Board and mandating that all federal staff receive training.39 Since 2018, the federal budget
has used a gender lens across domestic and foreign priorities.
The 2018 budget also established a new Centre for Gender,
Diversity, and Inclusion Statistics to help the government
monitor progress and hold itself accountable and created a
Department for Women and Gender Equality.

Current Approaches

13Gender Equality Funds
Some countries have created separate funds for programs intended
to further gender equality and women’s rights. In 2008, for example,
the Netherlands launched a $77 million fund to support organizations
advancing gender equality through the Millennium Development
Goals. Since then, governments have committed more than $1 billion
through various stand-alone gender funding mechanisms.40 In 2015,
Australia established a $55 million Gender Equality Fund to strengthen
gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the IndoPacific region.41 In 2018, Canada made the single-largest government
investment in women’s rights organizations by contributing $300
million to a new Equality Fund, a consortium of public- and privatesector donors aiming to mobilize $1 billion in service of gender equality.42 France announced a 120-million–euro budget to support its feminist foreign policy, focusing primarily on feminist movements and civilsociety organizations, and its development agency is tasked with funding 700 million euros annually for gender equality projects.43
Pooled Funds and Collective Initiatives
Other countries contribute resources to pooled funds in support ofgender equality that are administered by multilateral organizations.
Germany, Israel, Japan, and Spain are major donors to the UN Women
Fund for Gender Equality, which has disbursed $65 million to womenled civil society organizations. The governments of Belgium, Denmark,the Netherlands, and Sweden launched the SheDecides fund in 2017,
mobilizing $450 million to advance women’s sexual and reproductive
health and rights. Other countries have redirected aid to gender projects through collective initiatives such as the 2X Challenge: Financing
for Women, launched in 2018, which has mobilized close to $2.5 billion from G7 countries and other institutions to support women’s economic empowerment.
Similarly, the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)
housed at the World Bank is a collective of fourteen governments—
Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands,
Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States—that have together
contributed $354 million to date to fund projects supporting women
entrepreneurs in the developing world.

14

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

CRITIQUESAs many governments have begun to prioritize gender equality acrosstheir diplomatic, development, defense, and trade efforts, skeptics
argue that increasing the focus on women’s rights and gender equality
detracts from advancing other national interests abroad. Even those
who believe gender equality is a worthwhile goal do not always agree
that it should be institutionalized as a foreign policy priority.
This skepticism ignores evidence that gender equality not only is ahuman right worthy of protection but also advances a country’s economic and security interests. Raising the status of women and girls
has been shown to increase GDP, improve global health, combat radicalization and extremism, improve the chances of lasting peace, andstrengthen democracy. In the face of global challenges such as poverty,
insecurity, authoritarianism, and violent extremism, the talents andcontributions of 50 percent of the population should not be overlooked.
Other critics argue that government policies to advance genderequality through foreign policy have not gone far enough. Even incountries that have made strong commitments on paper, attention to
women’s rights and gender equality frequently remains siloed in dedicated offices rather than integrated as a priority across departments.
In addition, implementation remains a significant challenge, as government commitments toward gender equality are rarely accompanied bysufficient resources and metrics to ensure success and accountability.
Some feminist scholars and civil society leaders also argue that atrue feminist foreign policy requires a transformation in international
relations. Those critics maintain that feminist policies advanced by
Canada, France, Sweden, and other governments do not do enoughto reshape aid infrastructure, decrease militarism, address the root
causes of inequality, or incorporate the lived experiences of women andCritiques15

girls.44 Others note that in order to avoid hypocrisy, a feminist foreign
policy needs to address the status of women domestically, committing
to equality both at home and abroad. Though few foreign policy efforts
to advance gender equality meaningfully incorporate domestic agencies, a handful now do: Sweden’s feminist foreign policy, for example,
is part of a broader “feminist government” that aims to incorporate
gender equality in policymaking “both nationally and internationally,”
and Canada’s recent $300 million funding commitment to the Equality
Fund consortium in support of women’s rights organizations abroad
was accompanied by $30 million in support of domestic women’s
rights organizations.
While comprehensive national efforts to advance gender equality
in foreign policy are relatively recent, and therefore have not yet been
fully evaluated, qualitative evidence suggests that government-wide initiatives to improve the status of women offer national security, development, and diplomatic benefits. As other governments take a systemic
approach to elevating gender equality in foreign policy, the UnitedStates should not lag behind, as doing so overlooks a cost-effective
investment that would boost U.S. foreign policy aims.

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Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

RECOMMENDATIONSFOR THE
UNITED STATESTo strengthen prosperity and stability and to reap the benefits of women’s empowerment globally, the U.S. government should take a more
systematic and well-resourced approach to promoting gender equality in foreign policy, incorporating lessons from strategies pursued byprior U.S. administrations as well as other nations around the world.
The U.S. government should build upon its prior efforts by improving
its internal infrastructure on gender equality, adapting to the U.S. context a range of innovative ideas piloted by other countries, and fully
financing gender equality programs. In addition, the U.S. government
should rigorously evaluate emerging efforts in this area to inform policies and investments in the United States and other nations.
LEADERSHIP
Over the past two decades, the United States enacted a series of internal reforms to better align U.S. government tools and personnel with
its stated gender equality goals, including through the establishment of
the world’s first-ever ambassador-at-large position dedicated to global
women’s issues and the development of specific policies on women’s
health, economic empowerment, and involvement in peace and security
efforts. These changes demonstrated the effectiveness of reform but
also illustrated the need for a more comprehensive government-wide
approach driven by leadership from the top, both in the White Houseand cabinet agencies.
The U.S. government should launch a high-level White House council to elevate and coordinate efforts to advance the status of women and girls, both athome and abroad. The president should launch a new U.S. Council on
Recommendations for the United States

17

Gender Equality, co-chaired by the heads of the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, and the Domestic Policy Council,
and tasked to identify and implement domestic and foreign policy priorities. It should include high-level interagency officials who report directly
to cabinet secretaries and submit annual progress reports to the president. This council would build on previous interagency efforts to advance
women’s issues, including the John F. Kennedy administration’s Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, the Bill Clinton administration’s President’s Interagency Council on Women, and the Barack
Obama administration’s White House Council on Women and Girls.
The council would draw on lessons from other cabinet-level interagency
mechanisms, such as the National Science and Technology Council, andalign with current efforts to advance women’s rights, including the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons. The council also should include an advisory committee of civilsociety leaders who can provide expertise and recommendations.
All cabinet agencies should appoint a high-ranking, full-time official tasked
with advancing gender equality who reports directly to the cabinet secretary. This official could occupy a new, stand-alone position, such as anambassador or envoy for gender equality. Alternatively, cabinet secretaries could endow an existing deputy or undersecretary with responsibility for ensuring a focus on gender equality across the department,
similar to the Swedish model, which assigns a gender mainstreaming
coordinator in each line ministry.
Agencies should reform staff training and performance reviews to ensurethat all personnel have the technical expertise needed to implement genderequality policies. Just as Canada mandates training on gender equality,
all U.S. personnel in domestic and foreign policy departments should
receive in-person training on gender-based analysis and implicit bias
as part of the onboarding process. In addition, performance reviews
should include metrics related to advancing gender equality policies.
To lead by example and improve the effectiveness of its operations, the U.S.
government should commit to gender balance in staffing and strengtheninternal personnel mechanisms. Following the example of countries from
Canada to Colombia to Rwanda, the president should appoint a genderbalanced cabinet and mandate gender-balanced selection of political
appointees. Human resources policies should include diversity and leadership targets and strategies to advance recruitment, promotion, and18

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

retention of a diverse and gender-balanced staff in the foreign, military,and civil services.45 The U.S. government should be a model employer,
with policies to support working families, including through paid family
medical leave, paid sick days, and remedial measures to promote antidiscrimination efforts and ensure equal pay. Reforms should address
workplace harassment and abuse, implementing swift investigations andappropriate accountability mechanisms for sexual harassment and otherforms of gender-based violence.
POLICY
Inspired by strong evidence that greater gender equality improvesprosperity and security, a handful of nations have adopted ambitious
government-wide strategies to elevate the status of women across theirdiplomatic, development, defense, economics, and trade apparatuses.
The U.S. government similarly should pursue a government-wide strategy, knitting together piecemeal policies from previous U.S. administrations under one umbrella.
The U.S. president should issue a government-wide strategy to advancegender equality as a domestic and foreign policy priority, supported byagency implementation plans. Adapting recent Canadian and Swedish initiatives, the U.S. government should articulate a broad strategy
for gender equality that covers both domestic and foreign policy. To
integrate this strategy into the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, the U.S.
government should also update existing policies, such as the National
Security Strategy, to reflect the prioritization of gender equality as adomestic and global goal. To help the government track and deliver on
its vision, the White House Council on Gender Equality should identify time-bound, measurable goals—both domestic and global—that
are fully funded and assigned to particular government agencies. Metrics for prosperity and stability should include the status of women andgirls—by, for example, defining economic health to include a level legal
playing field for women, and defining security to include freedom from
intimate partner violence and sexual assault. The intelligence community should increase its assessment of the threats posed by genderinequalities around the world—for example, by producing a National
Intelligence Estimate on global gender disparities.
The U.S. Congress should adopt legislation to advance gender equality worldwide. Enacting legislation to enshrine gender equality as a

Recommendations for the United States

19bipartisan priority would codify a whole-of-government commitment,
thereby ensuring that a coordinated approach to this issue continues
across administrations—as demonstrated by the 2017 Women, Peace,and Security Act.
RESOURCES
Efforts to advance gender equality risk becoming empty mandates
without sufficient funding. The U.S. government should provide adequate resources to elevate the status of women through economic,
development, diplomatic, and security efforts.
The U.S. government should ensure adequate gender equality financing by
creating budgetary targets dedicated to advancing the status of women andgirls. At a time of significant economic hardship, gender equality is asmart investment that not only improves the lives of women and girls
but also advances stability, economic growth, good governance, foodsecurity, and community health. Efforts to recover from the healthand economic ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic will be lesseffective if they exclude the specific needs and contributions of half
the population. Following the example of countries such as Australia,
France, and the Netherlands, the State Department, U.S. Agency forInternational Development, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation should target at least 20 percent of their budgets to advance thestatus of women and girls. Building on the approach of Canada’s Equality Fund, overall U.S. foreign assistance funding should include at least$500 million of direct support for local, women-led organizations,which are proven drivers of change. And as in Canada and Sweden, all
U.S. foreign assistance programs should undergo gender analyses toensure alignment with policies to advance gender equality. Furthermore, the U.S. government should eliminate aid contingencies that
undermine women’s rights and autonomy, including the Helms and Siljander amendments and the Mexico City Policy, which reduce access tocritical health care.46
The U.S. government should lead an effort to strengthen the global architecture for gender equality financing around the world. The government
should provide seed funding for a new gender equality partnership,modeled after the U.S. co-founded Open Government Partnership, tobolster the multilateral architecture in support of women’s rights andcatalyze additional financing for gender equality from governments,

20

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policymultilateral organizations, the private sector, and civil society institutions—a proposal outlined by the Center for Global Development.47
ACCOUNTABILITY
For far too long—in the United States and around the world—rhetoricon the importance of gender equality has not been matched by political or financial commitments. Stronger transparency frameworks areneeded to track progress and hold leaders accountable. To promoteaccountability, the U.S. government should regularly publish public
reports on its efforts to advance the status of women.
The U.S. government should publish public, annual progress reports on government efforts to implement gender equality policies. The White House
Council on Gender Equality should ensure that the U.S. government
reports progress toward time-bound and measurable goals, and thereporting process should include a mechanism for civil society input.
The United States should join 189 other nations in ratifying CEDAW. This
step would oblige the U.S. government to submit a report every four
years to the CEDAW committee—comprised of independent experts
on women’s rights from around the world—detailing measures taken
to advance gender equality. The independent experts would identify
gaps and recommend steps for the U.S. government to improve its
efforts to eliminate discrimination against women.
The United States should ensure that a new global gender equality partnership includes accountability requirements. As with the Open Government
Partnership, the U.S. government and other governments participating
in a gender equality partnership should submit annual progress reports
on gender equality initiatives, subject to oversight by independent
experts.48 Where relevant, this oversight mechanism could work in
partnership with like-minded institutions; for example, the partnership
could collaborate with the UN Security Council to oversee NAP implementation. This would enable the global partnership to monitor eachpartner’s efforts and would facilitate an exchange of lessons on effective
approaches to promoting gender equality.
The U.S. government should disclose funding levels for its domestic andglobal efforts to advance gender equality. The government should
track resources dedicated to gender equality through its funding

Recommendations for the United States

21

dashboard—USAspending.gov. In addition, the government should
join like-minded nations in encouraging reform of the OECD DAC
global development assistance tracker to improve accuracy, as well as
the launch of an independent mechanism to track country spending on
gender equality.
The U.S. Congress should exercise regular oversight of U.S. commitments toadvance gender equality. As a first step, the U.S. Congress should create
a commission—drawing lessons from the 9/11, Carlucci, and HELP
commissions—to review the effectiveness of U.S. government efforts
to promote gender equality at home and abroad and make recommendations for improvement.
RESEARCH
The U.S. government should ensure rigorous data collection andevaluation of new strategies and funding commitments in support ofgender equality. The lack of systematic monitoring of existing genderequality efforts in the United States and globally undermines the possibility of improving and adapting gender equality programs and policies. Through transparency mechanisms, regular reporting, and new
research, the United States can identify efficient and effective genderequality policy designs and implementations.
The U.S. government should offer social science research grants to fundbasic research evaluating gender equality policies. The Departments ofState and of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development should invest in university-based analyses of U.S.-funded efforts
to promote gender equality to identify and encourage adoption of bestpractices. A grant program modeled after the Defense Department’s
Minerva Research Initiative should similarly dedicate at least $20 million per year.
The U.S. government should call for reporting on the representation of
women across decision-making bodies. To track global data, the U.S. government should help fund data collection on the number of women represented in senior posts and in politics, including as cabinet members,
ambassadors, local legislative officials, mayors, and candidates for local
and national office.

22

Understanding Gender Equality in Foreign Policy

CONCLUSION
Unlocking the potential of half the population is not just a moral obligation—it is an economic and security imperative. At a time whenresources are limited, investing in women and girls is a proven way tobolster good governance, economic growth, community health, andstability. To achieve these goals, the U.S. government should strengthen
its commitment to gender equality through leadership, policy, andresources, including by issuing a government-wide strategy that institutionalizes gender equality as a domestic and foreign policy priority;
creating a high-level council to coordinate agency efforts; and adopting
a budgetary target to close the gender financing gap. These steps will
help the United States draw on the benefits of women’s empowerment
to fortify national security, make more efficient use of foreign aid, andsupport democracy and long-term stability around the world.

Conclusion

23

ENDNOTES
1.

Jonathan Woetzel, James Manyika, “How Advancing Women’s Equality Can Add$12 Trillion to Global Growth,” McKinsey & Company, 2015, http://mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/how-advancing-womens-equality-can-add-12-trillion-to-global-growth.

2.

“Women’s Participation in Peace Process,” Council on Foreign Relations, Updated January
30, 2019, http://cfr.org/interactive/womens-participation-in-peace-processes/research.

3.

Erik Melander, “Political Gender Equality and State Human Rights Abuse,” Journal of
Peace Research 42, no. 2, 2005: 149-166; Jacqueline Demeritt, Angela D. Nicholas, Eliza
G. Kelly, “Female Participation and Civil War Relapse,” Civil Wars 16, no. 3, 2015:348-368.

4.

“The State of Food and Agriculture, Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap
for Development,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011,
http://fao.org/3/a-i2050e.pdf.

5.

Jacqui True, Michael Mintrom, “Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Caseof Gender Mainstreaming,” International Studies Quarterly 45, no. 1, p. 27-57.

6.

“Feminist Foreign Policy,” Government of Sweden, http://government.se/government-policy/feminist-foreign-policy/.

7.

Jean Asselborn, “Foreign Policy Address,” Government of Luxembourg, http://maee.gouvernement.lu/content/dam/gouv_maee/minist%C3%A8re/d%C3%A9clarations-de-politique-%C3%A9trang%C3%A8re/2019/EN-Declaration-de-politique-etrangere-2019.pdf.

8.

“Handbook on Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy,” Government Offices of Sweden,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019.

9.

Since 2009 Australia, Canada, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States have created an ambassador
or envoy post within their ministries of foreign affairs that focuses on women or genderequality, though the titles and mandates of the roles differ.

10. “One in Five Ministers Is a Woman According to New IPU/UN Women Map,” InterParliamentary Union (IPU), 2019, http://ipu.org/news/press-releases/2019-03/one-in-five-ministers-woman-according-new-ipuun-women-map.

24

Endnotes11. Countries with female minister of defense are Albania, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Denmark, France, Gabon, Germany,
Kenya, Lebanon, the Maldives, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, theSolomon Islands, Spain, South Africa, and Switzerland. Countries with female foreign
ministers are Andorra, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia, Botswana, Bulgaria,
Central African Republic, Colombia, Croatia, Dominica, El Salvador, Eswatini,
Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya,
Liechtenstein, Myanmar, Namibia, Norway, Palau, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone,
Spain, South Africa, South Korea, Sudan, South Sudan, Suriname, and Sweden.
12. Ann Towns and Birgitta Niklasson, “Gender, International Status, and Ambassador
Appointments,” Foreign Policy Analysis 13, no. 3, 2017: 521-540.
13. “Member States—National Action Plans for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 on
Women, Peace and Security,” Peace Women, http://peacewomen.org/member-states.
14. Caitlin Hamilton, Nyibeny Naam, and Laura J. Shepherd, “Twenty Years of Women,
Peace and Security National Action Plans: Analysis and Lessons Learned,” University
of Sydney, 2020, http://wpsnaps.org/app/uploads/2020/03/Twenty-Years-of-Women-Peace-and-Security-National-Action-Plans_Report_Final_Web.pdf.
15. OECD members with a specific gender equality strategy are Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland,
Ireland, Japan, Luxemburg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom,
and the United States.
16. “Gender Equality Policy,” Development Cooperation Ireland, Department of Foreign
Affairs, 2004, http://irishaid.ie/media/irishaid/allwebsitemedia/20newsandpublications/publicationpdfsenglish/irish-aid-gender-equality-policy-april-2004.pdf.
17. “Department Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,” Governmentof Japan, 2016.
18. “Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy,” Government of Canada, http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/priorities-priorites/policy-politique.aspx?lang=eng.
19. Daily News, “Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policy,” BeLatina, January 21, 2020, http://
belatina.com/mexico-feminist-foreign-policy/.

Endnotes25

20. Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), “Advances for Gender Equality at COP25,”
Women and Gender Constituency, December 13, 2019, http://womengenderclimate.org/advances-for-gender-equality-at-cop25/; Nicole Figot, “How Mexico Is Using
NAFTA to Promote Women’s Rights,” Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy Online
Journal, December 7, 2017, http://centreforfeministforeignpolicy.org/journal/2017/11/23/mexico-uses-nafta-to-fight-for-women.
21. Secretariat of Foreign Affairs, Government of Mexico, “Mexico Adopts Feminist Foreign
Policy,” Secretariat of Foreign Affairs press release, January 9, 2020, http://gob.mx/sre/prensa/mexico-adopts-feminist-foreign-policy?idiom=en.
22. “Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations,” Government of Canada, 2020, http://international.gc.ca/world-monde/issues_development-enjeux_developpement/gender_equality-egalite_des_genres/elsie_initiative-initiative_elsie.aspx.
23. “Welcome to the Women, Peace & Security Chiefs of Defence Network,” WPS CHODs
Network, 2020, http://wpschods.com/.
24. José-Antonio Monteiro, “Gender-Related Provisions in Regional Trade Agreements,”
Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organization, December 18,
2018, http://wto.org/english/res_e/reser_e/ersd201815_e.pdf.
25. Nadia Ibrahim and Laura Macdonald, “The New NAFTA Is a Missed Opportunity for
Gender Equality,” Behind the Numbers (blog), January 23, 2019, http://behindthenumbers.ca/2019/01/23/the-new-nafta-is-a-missed-opportunity-for-gender-equality.
26. “G20 Leaders’ Communiqué: Brisbane Summit, 15-16 November 2014,” Group of
Twenty, 2014.
27. The White House of President Barack Obama, “Fact Sheet: APEC Breaks Down Barriers
to Women’s Economic Participation,” November 11, 2014, http://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/11/fact-sheet-apec-breaks-down-barriers-women-s-economic-participation.
28. Nigeria Humanitarian Fund, “Nigeria Humanitarian Fund Annual Report 2018,” UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitari-an Affairs (OCHA), 2019, http://unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/Nigeria HF 2018 Annual report.pdf.
29. World Food Programme, “Sweden Strengthens Partnership to Accelerate Economic
Empowerment for Rural Women,” World Food Programme news release, March 4, 2018,
http://wfp.org/news/sweden-strengthens-partnership-accelerate-economic-empowerment-rural-women.
30. “France’s International Strategy on Gender Equality (2018-2022),” France’s International
Strategy on Gender Equality (2018-2022), Directorate-General for Global Affairs,
Culture, Education and International Development, France Ministry for Europe andForeign Affairs, 2018.
31. “UAE Calls for Greater Global Action to Advance Gender Equality,” Permanent Missionof the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations, 2019, http://un.int/uae/news/uae-calls-greater-global-action-advance-gender-equality.
32. “Australia’s Assistance for Gender Equality,” Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
2017, http://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/gender-equality-empowering-women-girls/gender-equality/Pages/australias-assistance-for-gender-equality.aspx.

26

Endnotes

33. “Aid to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: An Overview,” Development
Assistance Committee, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,
2018, http://oecd.org/dac/gender-development/Aid-to-gender-overview-2018.pdf.
34. Aria Grabowski and Parker Essick, “Are They Really Gender Equality Projects? An
Examination of Donors’ Gender-Mainstreamed and Gender-Equality Focused Projects
to Assess the Quality of Gender-Marked Projects,” Oxfam, February 10, 2020, http://oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/are-they-really-gender-equality-projects.
35. “Countries With a Gender Budgeting Government Initiative,” International Monetary
Fund, Prominent Gender Budgeting Initiatives, 2017, http://data.imf.org/?sk=E041EF04-A2F3-492D-B2BF-F581781EB8AA.
36. Lekha Chakraborty, “IMF Working Paper—Asia: A Survey of Gender Budgeting Efforts,”
2016, http://imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2016/wp16150.pdf.
37. J.G. Stotsky, “Gender Budgeting in Sub-Saharan Africa,” GREAT Insights Magazine 6,
no. 2, 2017, http://ecdpm.org/great-insights/she-drives-change/gender-budgeting-sub-saharan-africa.
38. Gerhard Steger, “Gender Budgeting the Austrian Experience,” Ministry of Finance,
Austria, 2010, http://oecd.org/gov/budgeting/46384463.pdf.
39. “Introduction to GBA+,” Status of Women, Government of Canada, September 26, 2018,
http://cfc-swc.gc.ca/gba-acs/course-cours/eng/modA1/modA1_01_05.html#pop-05.
40. Kasia Staszewka, Tenzin Dolker, and Kellea Miller, “Only 1% of Gender Equality Funding
Is Going to Women’s Organisations—Why?” Guardian, 2019, http://theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/02/gender-equality-support-1bn-boost-how-to-spend-it.
41. “Gender Initiatives Overview,” Department of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government,
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42. “Global Affairs Canada—The Equality Fund: Transforming the Way We Support Women’s
Organizations and Movements Working to Advance Women’s Rights and Gender
Equality,” Global Affairs Canada, http://canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2019/06/global-affairs-canada---the-equality-fund-transforming-the-way-we-support-womens-organizations-and-movements-working-to-advance-womens-rights-and-g.html.
43. “France Promotes Feminist Foreign Policy,” Embassy of France, 2019, http://lc.ambafrance.org/France-promotes-feminist-foreign-policy; Le Jean-Yves Drian andMarlène Schiappa, “Feminist Foreign Policy,” France Diplomatie, Ministry for Europe
and Foreign Affairs.
44. “Feminist Aid—A Call for G7 Leaders to Beat Inequality,” Oxfam, 2019, http://
42kgab3z3i7s3rm1xf48rq44-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bp-feminist-aid-g7-090519-en.pdf; Jessica Poh-Janrell, “How Feminist Is Sweden’s
Feminist Foreign Policy?” Swedish and European CSOs for Global Development,
2017; Danielle Lee, “What Is Feminist Foreign Policy? Analysis of Canada’s Feminist
International Assistance Policy,” University of Ottawa, 2018.
45. Susan Markham, Sahana Dharmapuri, and Stephenie Foster, “Operationalizing a
Feminist Foreign Policy: Recommendations for the U.S. Government,” Our Secure

Endnotes

27

Future, 2019, http://oursecurefuture.org/sites/default/files/operationalizing-feminist-foreign-policy-us.pdf.
46. Lyric Thompson, Gayatri Patel, Gawain Kripke and Megan O’Donnell, “Toward a
Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States,” International Center for Research on
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47. Megan O’Donnell, “From Principles to Practice: Strengthening Accountability for Gender
Equality in International Development,” Center for Global Development, January 2020,
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48. O’Donnell, “From Principles to Practice.”

28

EndnotesADVISORY COMMITTEEGENDER EQUALITYIN FOREIGN POLICY
Lorena Aguilar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship,
Costa Rica
Ann Bernes
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Sundaa Bridgett-Jones
The Rockefeller Foundation

Susan Markham
Smash Strategies
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka
UN Women
Jacqueline O’Neill
Government of Canada

Julie Delahanty
Former Oxfam Canada

Joanna Roper
United Kingdom Foreign andCommonwealth OfficeEllen Friedman
Compton Foundation

Madjiguene Sock
Dalberg Advisors

Caren Grown
World Bank

Yumiko Tanaka
Japan International Cooperation Agency

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda
African Union

Lyric Thompson
International Center for Researchon Women

Sarah Hendriks
UN Women

Nahla Valji
United Nations

Erin Hohlfelder
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Clare Hutchinson
North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)
Fadia Kiwan
Arab Women Organization

Melanne Verveer
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peaceand Security
Katri Viinikka
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland

Advisory Committee

29

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This report was produced under the guidance of CFR’s Advisory Committee on Gender Equality in Foreign Policy, a distinguished group of
experts from the government, multilateral organizations, academia,
and the private and public sectors. Over the past several months, members of this advisory committee have participated in meetings, reviewed
drafts, and shared research and insights from their work. The reporthas been enhanced considerably by the expertise of this advisory group,
and we are thankful for members’ participation. The views expressed
here and any errors are our own.
A special acknowledgment is extended to James M. Lindsay, CFR’s
director of studies. We are grateful to Patricia Dorff and Chloe Moffett
for their review of previous drafts, and to Rebecca Turkington, Alexandra Bro, Mallory Matheson, and Maleeha Coleburn for their excellent assistance in the production of this paper. This report was written
under the auspices of the Women and Foreign Policy program.
Jamille Bigio
Rachel Vogelstein30

Acknowledgments

ABOUT THE AUTHORSJamille Bigio is a senior fellow in the Women and Foreign Policy
program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, she was
director for human rights and gender on the White House National
Security Council staff and advised First Lady Michelle Obama on adolescent girls’ education. From 2009 to 2013, Bigio was senior advisor
to the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues at the State
Department, and was detailed to the office of the undersecretary ofdefense for policy and to the U.S. Mission to the African Union. Bigio
led the interagency launch of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women,
Peace, and Security, an effort for which she was recognized with the
U.S. Department of State Superior Honor Award and the U.S. Department of Defense Secretary of Defense Honor Award. Bigio graduatedfrom the University of Maryland and received her master’s degree fromthe Harvard Kennedy School.
Rachel Vogelstein is the Douglas Dillon senior fellow and directorof the Women and Foreign Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 2009 to 2012, Vogelstein was director of policy
and senior advisor within the office of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton, and represented the U.S. Department of State as amember of the White House Council on Women and Girls. Previously,
Vogelstein was the director of the women and girls programs in theoffice of Hillary Clinton at the Clinton Foundation, where she oversaw the development of the No Ceilings initiative and provided guidance on domestic and global women’s issues. Prior to joining the State
Department, Vogelstein was senior counsel at the National Women’s
Law Center in Washington, DC, where she specialized in women’s

About the Authors

31

health and reproductive rights. Vogelstein is a recipient of the U.S.
Department of State Superior Honor Award and the National Women
Lawyer’s Award. She graduated from Columbia University’s Barnard
College and received a law degree from Georgetown Law School.

32

About the Authors

Discussion Paper
June 2020

Cover photo: Sweden’s Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom
addresses the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women,
Peace, and Security, in New York, on October 27, 2017.
(Ryan Brown/UN Women)

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Understanding
Gender Equality
in Foreign Policy
Jamille Bigio and Rachel Vogelstein