The Birth of Feminist Foreign Policy: Advancing Women’s Issues in a World Increasingly Hostile Towards Reproductive Rights
September 21st and 22nd will mark the first-ever meeting of female foreign ministers, and hopefully, a leap forward in terms of feminist foreign policy. Feminist foreign policy, a term coined by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Walstrom, is defined as “standing against the systematic and global subordination of women” as a means to facilitate foreign development and security. Canada, in accordance with its pledge to bring women’s issues to the forefront of its political narrative, will host this summit, which includes representatives from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Australia. There has been substantial resistance to such a gathering, as popular culture often assigns a stigma to any initiative bearing the “feminist” label. However, this backlash, in addition to the frightening devolution of global reproductive rights under the Trump administration begs the need for consensus and concrete action regarding feminist foreign policy and urges on this ambitious group of women.
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