IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 196 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the impor-
tance of taking a feminist approach to all aspects of foreign policy, 
including foreign assistance and humanitarian response, trade, diplomacy, 
defense, immigration, funding, and accountability mechanisms. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 8, 2021 
Ms. SPEIER (for herself, Ms. LEE of California, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Ms. LOIS 
FRANKEL of Florida, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. MENG, Mrs. CAROLYN B. 
MALONEY
of New York, Ms. JACKSON
LEE, Ms. NORTON, Mr. 
CICILLINE, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. TITUS, Mr. JONES, Mr. CARSON, Mr. 
KHANNA, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. WELCH, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, 
Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. BONAMICI, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. 
KUSTER, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Ms. HOULAHAN, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, 
Ms. SA´NCHEZ, Ms. CHU, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Ms. OMAR, Ms. 
ESHOO, Mr. COOPER, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. 
VARGAS, Mr. KEATING, and Mr. CASTEN) submitted the following resolu-
tion; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regard-
ing the importance of taking a feminist approach to 
all aspects of foreign policy, including foreign assistance 
and humanitarian response, trade, diplomacy, defense, 
immigration, funding, and accountability mechanisms. 
Whereas a feminist approach to public policy requires mean-
ingful analysis of and proactive challenges to power 
structures and inequalities based on intersecting systems 
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of discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of 
race, age, language, socioeconomic status, physical or 
mental ability, sex, including gender identity or expres-
sion and sexual 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 non-state 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 non-state 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 organi-
zations, 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; 
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Whereas feminist foreign policy includes a focus on key the-
matic priorities of bodily autonomy, peace, environmental 
integrity, and justice, which are often left behind in for-
eign policy development and discourse; 
Whereas although women and girls make up approximately 
half of the world’s population, they face considerable dis-
parities relative to men and boys in their access to rights, 
resources, and agency around the world, and— 
(1) as of 2020, women had on average three-fourths 
of the legal rights as men worldwide; 
(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 2020, around the world women held only 25.2 
percent of parliamentary seats and in 2019 held 21.2 
percent of ministerial positions; 
(4) approximately one-third of women globally have 
experienced gender-based violence, which increases in cri-
sis settings such as during current COVID–19 stay-at- 
home orders, resulting in some settings having over 70 
percent of women experiencing gender-based violence; 
(5) in 2020, only 4.8 percent of military contingents 
and 10.9 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; 
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(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; 
(9) women and girls face increased risks in crisis; 
and 
(10) in the past decade, women provided over 43 
percent of the agricultural labor in low- and middle-in-
come countries, yet comprised 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 percentage of hungry people could be re-
duced by 12 to 17 percent if women had equal access to 
agricultural resources; and 
(3) peace agreements are 35 percent more likely to 
last over 15 years when women are at the negotiating 
table; 
Whereas as foreign assistance by the United States helps 
tens of millions of people each year, often providing life-
saving aid while accounting for approximately 1 percent 
of the United States Federal budget, a smaller amount 
supports 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 
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(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 
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 the COVID–19 pandemic highlight 
the need to take a feminist approach to foreign policy 
with many impacts likely to disproportionately affect 
women and girls, including— 
(1) the United Nations Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) finds that over 90 per-
cent of students have been affected by pandemic-related 
school closures, that approximately 1,000,000,000 stu-
dents have had their learning disrupted during the 2020– 
2021 academic year, and that approximately 11,000,000 
girls will likely not return to school due to the disruption; 
(2) the economic impact of the pandemic has had a 
disproportionate effect on women, and the 780,000,000 
women who rely on informal employment lost on average 
60 percent of their prepandemic income in the first 
month of the pandemic; 
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(3) on average, women’s employment is 19 percent 
more at risk than men’s employment due to the COVID– 
19 pandemic; 
(4) the United Nations estimates that due to the 
COVID–19 pandemic, women between the ages of 25 and 
34 are 18 percent more likely to fall into extreme poverty 
in 2021, worsening the already existing gender-poverty 
gap; 
(5) worldwide, women have shouldered the bulk of 
unpaid care and domestic work resulting from the pan-
demic, and even prior to the pandemic, women on aver-
age performed more than three times the amount of un-
paid work relative to men; 
(6) the COVID–19 pandemic has disrupted efforts 
to end child marriage, and could result in an additional 
13,000,000 child marriages taking place between 2020 
and 2030 that would otherwise have been averted; 
(7) over 49,000,000 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; 
(8) an estimated 243,000,000 women worldwide 
were subjected to sexual or physical violence by an inti-
mate partner between April 2019 and April 2020, and an 
additional 15,000,000 cases of gender-based violence are 
expected to occur for every 3 months the lockdown con-
tinues; and 
(9) 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; 
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Whereas, in 2020, nearly 80,000,000 people were displaced 
from their homes due to violence, disaster, conflict, and 
persecution, more than 165,000,000 people are in need of 
humanitarian assistance, and tools to center women, 
girls, and people of all gender identities in humanitarian 
responses, 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 totaled 
approximately 
$2,377,156,000,000 
and 
$3,214,184,000,000, 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-
gate the harmful impacts of climate change associated 
with trade; 
Whereas feminist diplomacy fosters increased collaboration 
and cooperation among state and non-state actors, in-
cluding championing equality and supporting the institu-
tions and mechanisms that facilitate cooperation, non-
military 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-
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tion 
in 
security 
forces, 
peace 
negotiations, 
and 
postconflict rebuilding; 
Whereas migration remains a global and growing phe-
nomenon, and— 
(1) the number of international migrants reached an 
estimated 272,000,000 persons in 2019; 
(2) women constitute nearly half of global migrant 
flows; 
(3) the United States is the leading country of des-
tination, hosting 44,800,000 foreign-born people, includ-
ing 22,600,000 naturalized citizens; and 
(4) a feminist approach to immigration would inte-
grate an analysis of the impact of immigration policy on 
women, children, people of all gender identities, and in-
digenous 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 
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) supports the adoption of policies that pro-
mote gender equity and women’s participation in 
public life, including women’s education, access to 
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health care, representation in public office, economic 
security and opportunity, access to rights and re-
sources, inclusion in foreign markets, and participa-
tion in peacekeeping, military, and diplomatic mis-
sions; 
(3) 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 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 
(4) commits to work with civil society groups 
and other stakeholders inside and outside of govern-
ment to advance a more feminist foreign policy in 
the United States. 
Æ 
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