•HRES 1147 IH 
ical or mental ability, gender identity or expression, sex-
ual orientation, indigenous identity, religion, ethnicity, 
citizenship, and nationality or migrant status; 
Whereas foreign policy reflects how a government defines and 
prioritizes peace and security, structures international 
trade, provides humanitarian aid and development assist-
ance, and works with other nations and nonstate actors; 
Whereas feminist foreign policy is the policy of a state that 
defines its interactions with other states, as well as move-
ments and other nonstate actors, in a manner that— 
(1) prioritizes peace, gender equality, and environ-
mental integrity; 
(2) enshrines, promotes, and protects the human 
rights of all; 
(3) seeks to disrupt colonial, racist, patriarchal, and 
male-dominated power structures; and 
(4) allocates significant resources, including re-
search, to achieve that vision; 
Whereas feminist foreign policy is coherent in its approach 
across its levers of influence, anchored by the exercise of 
those values at home and cocreated with feminist activ-
ists, organizations, movements, and stakeholders, at 
home and abroad; 
Whereas women’s rights are human rights, and foreign policy 
in the United States should be representative, inclusive, 
responsive, and accountable to stakeholders, and should 
take an intersectional approach, utilizing a power-based 
analysis that reveals, acknowledges, and seeks to correct 
for inequalities; 
Whereas feminist foreign policy includes a focus on key the-
matic priorities of bodily autonomy, peace, environmental 
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integrity, and justice, which are often left behind in for-
eign policy development and discourse; 
Whereas even though women and girls make up approxi-
mately half of the world’s population, they face consider-
able disparities relative to men and boys in their access 
to rights, resources, and agency around the world, and— 
(1) as of 2019, women had just three-fourths of the 
legal rights that men had on average; 
(2) the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender 
Gap report for 2020 estimates that at the current rate 
of change, it will take 99.5 years for there to be gender 
parity across the four dimensions it examines: health and 
survival, economic participation and opportunity, edu-
cational attainment, and political empowerment; 
(3) in 2019, around the world women held only 25.2 
percent of parliamentary seats and 21.2 percent of min-
isterial positions; 
(4) approximately 35 percent of women globally have 
experienced gender-based violence, which increases in cri-
sis settings resulting in some settings having over 70 per-
cent of women experiencing gender-based violence; 
(5) in 2019, only 4.7 percent of military contingents 
and 10.8 percent of uniformed police units in United Na-
tions peacekeeping missions were women; 
(6) 
in 
low- 
and 
middle-income 
countries, 
218,000,000 women have an unmet need for family plan-
ning services and supplies; 
(7) women face more constraints than men do in ac-
cessing foreign markets; 
(8) immigration law itself tends to marginalize 
women, relying on outmoded models of family, migration 
patterns, and economic mobility that often fail to account 
for the reality of women’s lives when migrating; 
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(9) women and girls face increased risks in crisis; 
and 
(10) women provide over 43 percent of the agricul-
tural labor in low- and middle-income countries, yet com-
prise more than 60 percent of the world’s chronically 
hungry people; 
Whereas in a world in which there is gender equality and 
women can fully participate in all spheres of life— 
(1) global gross domestic product could increase by 
$28,000,000,000,000 over 10 years; 
(2) the number of hungry people could be reduced 
by 100 to 150 million if women had equal access to agri-
cultural resources; and 
(3) peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to 
last over 15 years when women are an integral part of 
peace processes; 
Whereas as foreign assistance by the United States helps 
tens of millions of people each year, often providing life-
saving aid while only accounting for about 1 percent of 
the United States Federal budget, a smaller amount sup-
ports gender equality, and— 
(1) about 2 percent of assistance in 2018 was re-
ported as specifically for gender equality programs; 
(2) only about 16 percent of assistance in 2018 was 
reported as including key components to address gender 
equality issues within projects that have a primary focus 
other than gender equality across all sectors; and 
(3) an even smaller amount of aid funding finds its 
way to local, women-led and feminist organizations and 
grassroots gender equality movements, and in 2018, the 
United States only disbursed $4,400,000 to women’s 
rights organizations and institutions and in the past 10 
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years has not disbursed more than $10,000,000 in a 
year; 
Whereas a feminist foreign assistance policy in the United 
States would promote gender equality and focus on the 
experience of women and people who experience multiple 
and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as gender- 
based violence, lack of access to sexual and reproductive 
health, lack of access to education, and the burden of un-
paid care responsibilities; 
Whereas the impacts of COVID–19 highlight the need to take 
a feminist approach to foreign policy with many impacts 
likely to disproportionately affect women and girls, in-
cluding— 
(1) UNESCO estimates that over 91 percent of stu-
dents and 99 percent of teachers have been affected by 
COVID–19 school closures, and that approximately 
1,000,000,000 students will have their learning disrupted 
during the 2020–2021 academic year, which could in-
clude more than 550,000,000 girls; 
(2) COVID–19 will disrupt efforts to end child mar-
riage, potentially resulting in an additional 13,000,000 
child marriages taking place between 2020 and 2030 that 
could otherwise have been averted; 
(3) over 48,000,000 additional women will have an 
unmet need for modern contraceptives, and over 
15,000,000 additional unintended pregnancies in low- 
and middle-income countries are expected to occur as a 
result of the COVID–19 pandemic; 
(4) decision-making bodies established specifically 
for COVID–19 do not reflect a gender balance, such as 
the Coronavirus Task Force, appointed by President 
Trump, which is comprised of mostly men; 
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(5) an additional 15,000,000 cases of gender-based 
violence are expected to occur for every 3 months the 
lockdown continues; 
(6) due to the disruption of programs to prevent fe-
male genital mutilation in response to COVID–19, 
2,000,000 female genital mutilation cases may occur over 
the next decade that could have been averted; and 
(7) of the 740,000,000 women working in the infor-
mal economy, 42 percent are in high-risk sectors that are 
most likely to result in job loss or reductions in hours 
worked as a result of COVID–19, and stay at home or-
ders, compounded by limited access to social protection 
support, including health care, income, food support, and 
maternity protection, worsen impacts for women; 
Whereas, in 2020, over 70,000,000 people are displaced from 
their homes due to violence, disaster, conflict, and perse-
cution, more than 165,000,000 people are in need of hu-
manitarian assistance, and tools to center women, girls, 
and people of all gender identities in humanitarian re-
sponses, such as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee 
Gender Handbook for Humanitarian Action, should be 
used to respond; 
Whereas trade is a necessary and vital component of a na-
tion’s economic success and growth and a key part of its 
engagement with other nations; 
Whereas, in 2019, United States exports and imports of 
goods 
totaled 
$1,600,000,000,000 
and 
$2,500,000,000,000, respectively; 
Whereas a feminist trade policy would promote women’s 
rights and equitable and dignified labor practices 
throughout the value chain, as well as reduce and miti-
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gate the harmful impacts of climate change associated 
with trade; 
Whereas feminist diplomacy fosters increased collaboration 
and cooperation among state and nonstate actors, includ-
ing championing equality and supporting the institutions 
and mechanisms that facilitate cooperation, nonmilitary 
conflict resolution, and peaceful competition, and that 
mitigate the effects of climate change; 
Whereas defense efforts support the goal of a more peaceful, 
equitable, and healthy planet, with peace as the ultimate 
aim of defense, and a military policy that prevents and 
responds to gender-based violence in conflict and mean-
ingfully includes women and those who face discrimina-
tion 
in 
security 
forces, 
peace 
negotiations, 
and 
postconflict rebuilding; 
Whereas migration remains a global and growing phe-
nomenon; the number of international migrants reached 
an estimated 275,000,000 persons in 2019; women con-
stitute nearly half of global migrant flows; the United 
States is the leading country of destination, hosting 
44,800,000 foreign born people, including 22,600,000 
naturalized citizens; and a feminist approach to immigra-
tion would integrate an analysis of the impact of immi-
gration policy on women, children, people of all gender 
identities, and indigenous people; and 
Whereas strong transparency and accountability are critical 
to ensuring that promises to advance a feminist approach 
are honored through full funding and include the develop-
ment of participatory approaches to policy formulation 
and implementation, the setting and reaching of specific, 
time-bound and measurable goals that do no harm and 
are desired by and beneficial to those impacted, and 
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transparent reporting on the progress toward goals: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the goals of a feminist foreign pol-
icy; 
(2) recognizes that a whole of government effort 
that ensures coherence of a feminist approach across 
all streams of foreign policy is necessary to achieve 
those goals, and must include— 
(A) high-level leadership with a mandate to 
design and implement a feminist foreign policy 
with clearly articulated objectives; 
(B) commitment to gender parity, diver-
sity, equity, and inclusion, both internally 
among leadership and staff and externally, co-
created with feminist civil society groups and 
other stakeholders outside of government; 
(C) the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy 
on gender-based violence and workplace harass-
ment, immediately eliminating policies that 
allow abusers to move from one post to another 
once accused without facing consequences re-
lated to their employment or promotion; 
(D) training and capacity-building to en-
sure robust implementation; 
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(E) gender analysis underlying all aspects 
of foreign policy; 
(F) adequate resourcing to ensure all of 
the above; and 
(G) regular and public reporting on efforts 
and outcomes; and 
(3) commits to work with feminist civil society 
groups and other stakeholders inside and outside of 
government to advance a more feminist foreign pol-
icy in the United States. 
Æ 
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