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Women, Gender, and U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security

Fri, August 31, 10:00 to 11:30am, Hynes, 111

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, the number of women in the U.S. foreign policy and national security establishment has increased, and yet women remain underrepresented in senior level positions. In examining gender in the context of U.S. foreign policy/national security, several questions arise: In what ways has the increased number of women at the middle and senior levels affected U.S. foreign policy? What impact has women’s increased presence had on the gendered discourses and gender norms in foreign policy making? How do gender norms and gendered discourses impact the rhetoric of the inclusion of women and gender in foreign policy and the reality of few U.S. women at the top echelons? What are the effects of this disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality on the achievement of foreign policy and national security goals? This paper analyzes the connection between gender and U.S. foreign policy and national security in the contemporary period across different administrations. For example, the Obama Administration explicitly incorporated women’s empowerment and gender equality as a foreign policy and national security goal as evidenced by the creation of the State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (2011), Secretarial Policy Guidance on Promoting Gender Equality to Achieve our National Security and Foreign Policy Objectives (2012) and the U.S. National Security Strategy (2015) document. In contrast, the Trump Administration’s foreign policies in its first year have clearly indicated a reversal of many of the policies of the previous administration. In his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order reinstating the Mexico City Policy, the “global gag rule” (and expanded the ban in May 2017), in May the administration announced that the US would end funding of the UN Population Fund, and the role of women and gender equality as a foreign policy and national security interest is barely noted in the U.S. National Security Strategy document, issued in December 2017. Interviews conducted in the period 2016-2018 with women (career and political appointees) working in various U.S. agencies tasked with foreign policy and national security (i.e., State, DOD, USAID, NSC, DHS) provide supporting evidence to understand the relationship between gender, gendered discourses, and foreign policy/national security.

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