World According To Women

Context:  Poor status of women warrants for increasing the voice of women in policymaking, including foreign policy. As a non-permanent member of the UNSC and recently elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, India has a key role to play.

Gender considerations in India’s foreign policy:

• Under the development assistance paradigm and peacekeeping: In 2007, India deployed the first ever female unit to the United Nations Mission in Libya.
• Support to gender empowerment programmes: Through various international organisations.
• Making women the engines for inclusive and sustainable growth.
• Gender component in overseas programmes: E.g. as seen in Afghanistan, Lesotho and Cambodia.
• Gender budget exercise within the Ministry of External Affairs.

Poor status of Women

• Political participation:  According to annual Gender Gap Report 2021 (by World Economic Forum)-
  • Globally, women hold only 26 % of parliamentary seats and 22 % of ministerial positions.
  • In India, the number of ministers declined from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.
• Presence of regressive laws: Many countries prohibit them from doing certain jobs, and domestic violence is not punishable.

Significance of a feminist foreign policy: As a way to increase the voice of women in policymaking.

• Origin: Feminist approaches to international affairs can be traced back to the 1980s but was first introduced and advocated as a political framework by Sweden in 2014.
• Benefits:
  • Translated to a bottom-up development approach: With a donor-based mindset that benefits the recipient (particularly helpful in peacekeeping and peacebuilding).
  • Creates diversity in thinking: Data indicates that the inclusion of diverse voices makes for a better basket of options in decision making.
• Issues: Limited to a small circle in North America and Europe (Canada, France, Germany and, more recently, Mexico have adopted this).

Way forward: Go beyond a pure development model to wider access, representation and decision making.

• Feminist policy on the domestic front: The WEF report call to do better on the domestic front; no matter how “feminist” our foreign and security policy might be, without balance at home, it will not last.
• Create a unique feminist foreign policy:
  • Sensitize and shape global discussions around gender mainstreaming.
  • Broaden gender-based foreign assistance.
  • Provide space for decision making: By eliminating barriers to participation in politics, diplomacy, the bureaucracy, and military etc