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Women and Foreign Policy Program
The Women and Foreign Policy program analyzes how elevating the status of women and girls advances U.S. foreign policy objectives, including prosperity, stability, and security. The program informs policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public about issues related to gender equality and U.S. foreign policy through scholarship, roundtable discussions, briefings, and the Women Around the World blog.
129 million girls remain out of school
Featured
It is time for a new approach to human trafficking. We need to change how we talk about human trafficking and tackle challenges faced by vulnerable communities.
Over its decade of tracking women’s progress in the workforce, the Economist’s Glass Ceiling Index has registered very little improvement, as gendered structural barriers endure.
Gender equality is a crucial missing piece of the climate puzzle. If governments want a fighting chance of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and shifting to renewable energy, they must give women more access to inputs, education, and capital.
Find out where women around the world wield political power—and why it matters.
More than two years into his presidency, Joseph Biden has achieved some of his gender equality goals, and fallen short on others.
Child marriage remains legal in most U.S. States. Before it can curb this harmful practice abroad, the U.S. must first end it at home.
As U.S. foreign policy evolves, how can the State Department truly help America lead not merely by the example of its power, but the power of its example?
Sima Sami Bahous discusses women’s rights in areas of acute crisis and how UN Women is supporting gender equality and the empowerment of women around the world.
The Sorensen Distinguished Lecture on the United Nations was established in 1996 by Gillian and Theodore C. Sorensen to highlight the United Nations and offer a special occasion for its most distinguished and experienced leaders to speak to the Council membership.
Women made modest gains in representation in the 2022 Congressional midterms but the path for women's issues in the 118th Congress is uncertain.
Few safeguards protect our private data in today’s information economy. What can be done about the fact that our personal images and data can be exploited, potentially threatening personal as well as national security?
UN Women has the potential to make serious progress on gender equality and equity—but the U.S. government needs to help make this a reality.
Peace negotiators often overlook a proven strategy to reduce conflict and advance stability: include women.
Closing the gender gap in the workforce could add a staggering $28 trillion to the global GDP.
Program Experts
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The world’s nations are lagging woefully behind in meeting targets for achieving gender equality by 2030, but a new round of initiatives has stirred hope of progress.
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The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion for almost fifty years. How does regulation of abortion in the United States compare to that in the rest of the world?
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Gender equality is a crucial missing piece of the climate puzzle. If governments want a fighting chance of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and shifting to renewable energy, they must give women more access to inputs, education, and capital.
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Find out where women around the world wield political power—and why it matters.
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As a journalist, book author, and sometime adviser with frequent visits to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2015, I offer this distillation of lessons that we might learn from the United States’ longest war.