The Women and Foreign Policy program is a major component of CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy initiative. The objective of the Women and Foreign Policy program is to bring the status of women firmly into the mainstream foreign policy debate. Thanks in part to its efforts, there is now broad understanding of the importance of women's empowerment to a host of development, health, security, and other global priorities.
The program's current areas of focus include:
Please see below for relevant publications:
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that King Abdullah's granting the right to vote to Saudi Arabian women is another sign that the spirit of reform blowing through the region is making it increasingly hard to defend women's lack of basic rights.
See more in Saudi Arabia, Democracy and Human Rights, Women
Investment in maternal health in Afghanistan provides a cost-effective way to promote strategic U.S. foreign policy objectives including reducing maternal and child mortality, improving public health, empowering women, and fostering economic stability, and therefore, as part of a responsible drawdown in Afghanistan the U.S. government continue its commitments to training midwives and improving other maternal health programs to expand the advances made in women’s health since 2001.
See more in Afghanistan, Health, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's address to APEC's Women and the Economy Summit.
See more in Asia, Economic Development, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the challenges facing Michelle Bachelet as the leader of UN Women.
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon asks, "... will women's rights be negotiated away in the quest to reach a graceful exit - or, in fact, any kind of exit, in Afghanistan?"
See more in Afghanistan, 9/11, Wars and Warfare, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that the United States needs to wind down the war in Afghanistan in a way that includes Afghan men and women fighting quietly for progress.
See more in Afghanistan, Nation Building, Society and Culture
Isobel Coleman and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon say the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan places maternal health programs for Afghan women in jeopardy.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, Health, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the debt ceiling debate has highlighted the difference in world views between Washington and Wall Street.
See more in Economics, U.S. Strategy and Politics, Congress
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says that while Secretary Clinton's commitment to keeping women front and center in Afghanistan is clear, the White House's interest in deploying political capital on Afghan women's behalf is far less certain.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, Women, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Scaling back the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan will yield a peace dividend, but only when Social Security and Medicare spending are controlled will the U.S. be able to refocus on domestic priorities, says CFR'S Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.
See more in Afghanistan, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Micah Zenko examines the gender breakdowns of Washington's premier think tanks.
See more in Women, Gender Issues, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that the freeing of the only suspect arrested in the mutilation of Afghan girl Bibi Aisha sends a message throughout Afghanistan that women's rights are irrelevant.
See more in Afghanistan, Women
This session was part of the project, Maternal Health in Afghanistan and Pakistan, organized by CFR's Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative.
See more in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poverty, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon says the hotel bombing in Kabul raises the stakes for an already fragile peace process in Afghanistan.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Isobel Coleman discusses the Women2Drive campaign in Saudi Arabia and says the next generation of Saudi rulers will have to face the issue of women's rights.
See more in Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Democracy and Human Rights, Civil Society, Political Movements, Women
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses why women in Afghanistan will be watching particularly closely to what President Barack Obama plans to say about the drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan.
See more in Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, Women, U.S. Strategy and Politics
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses Afghan women who express concern at the lack of a peace process in Afghanistan, even as troop withdrawals approach.
See more in United States, Afghanistan, Wars and Warfare, Women
Linda Bartlett, an esteemed scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, discusses maternal health in Afghanistan, highlighting her experiences during the Reproductive Age Mortality Survey (RAMOS), which she had conducted on horseback only months after the fall of the Taliban in 2002.
See more in Afghanistan, Women
This session was part of the Maternal Health in Afghanistan and Pakistan roundtable series.
See more in Afghanistan, Health and Disease, Women
This roundtable, part of the ExxonMobil Women and Development Series, looked at successful and sustainable agricultural innovations used to enhance productivity and women's income-generating abilities in the developing world.
See more in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Economic Development, Health, Science, and Technology, Women
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