Feminism

Working on and with AI is inherently influenced by gender and race. The small number of women and minorities among AI developers has even been described as a "diversity crisis". At the same time, however, women from the Global South are strong in lowly-paid areas of the field, from hardware assembly to crowd work addressing bias and injustices in AI. Understanding these present discriminating structures is the first step to social change.

What does it take to realize an intersectional feminist foreign policy that benefits countries in the Global North and Global South? How can we prevent feminist foreign policy from turning into a branding tool with little substance or transformative potential? Why is it necessary for democratic governments to pursue a feminist foreign policy in an increasingly authoritarian world? These are some of the questions that a group of young feminists fellows set out to answer during a study tour in the United States organized by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC office.

Feminist Foreign Policy is about more than giving women power - creating the space for intersectional understandings of power imbalances is at its core.

The German Federal Government presented its Feminist Foreign Policy strategy on 1 March  2023. This ten-point strategy was discussed by Luise Amtsberg, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance, during of the colloquium "Feminist Foreign Policy: from ambitions to actions" of 6 April 6 2023 organised by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Paris office and the association Women In International Security - WIIS France.

Not even ten years after being mentioned for the very first time, feminist foreign policy has made it into the political mainstream: the guidelines ‘Shaping a Feminist Foreign Policy’ of the German Federal Foreign Office outline a strategic shift in German foreign politics. At the same time, digital policy has become more and more international.

The Syrian historian and journalist Karam Nachar is a co-founder of the Al-Jumhuriya newspaper. He writes about women’s and LGBT rights, among other socio-political debates. Interviewed by Hannah El-Hitami, he talks about the specific challenges for minorities in Syria, and the state of Syrian civil society after more than 10 years of war.

Through this survey, we are seeking to shine a light on what is happening for Women CSO leaders in Europe as working culture and systems are shifting in the wake of COVID; in light of multiple systemic crises as well as the impact of #MeToo, #BLM and climate movements. Four progressive European foundations join forces around this joint project: FEPS (Foundation for European Progressive Studies), FES (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), GEF (Green European Foundation) and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union. The feminist leadership expert Joanna Maycock and systemic change specialist Céline Charveriat are working together to conduct the research. As a recognition of the time you contribute to completing this survey we are offering a free quickfire coaching session.

The German government is in the process of spelling out a feminist foreign and development policy. This article, aimed at contributing to policy changes based on the new paradigm, suggests how Germany’s policy towards Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, whose political relevance has increased for Berlin due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, could become feminist.

The precondition for a real and sustainable recovery of Ukraine is, above all, the victory over the Russian aggression against the country. Still, the discussion on the vision and specific steps for reconstruction cannot wait as residents of damaged towns and millions of internally displaced persons need viable living conditions already now, while the war is still ongoing. Ukrainian society needs to build up resilience in many aspects. This interview presents a feminist perspective on the priorities of reconstruction and the importance of international support and allyship among communities. An interview with Galyna Kotliuk, Programme Coordinator - Gender Democracy/Women Rights/LGBT-Rights at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Kyiv office. Українська версія | Auf Deutsch

In Iran, feminist foreign policy demands both short-term interventions to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population and a long-term approach to deal with the state’s structural violence against its own citizens.