– By Neha Rajendra Dharme
– Intern IPPCS’21
“It is said women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world” Hillary Clinton.
Can you imagine the world which is full of vibrant color diversity , it is disheartening that across this spectrum too many women speak the language of silence ? Picture is very depressing when it comes to the picture of global politics, women leadership in international relations. In order to tackle systemic subordination of women, accelerating support to global gender equality efforts Sweden has pursued feminist foreign policy. This policy is an agenda for change to strengthen the rights representation, resources of all women and girls implemented by the Swedish foreign service integrating a gender perspective in all its activities. The aim of Sweden feminist foreign policy is to make progressive realization of gender equality full utilization of women’s power to boost global peace security by bringing more and more women forefront in decision making process.
Feminist approach in international relation believes global politics dominated by men. They see all realms of international relations and believe in global politics dominated by men. Feminist foreign policy sees security not only in terms of economic and political security but imparts as much attention to individual security women security free from rape domestic violence sexual harassment. Sweden feminist foreign policy promotes gender equality in peace building decision making process excluding the masculine characteristic i.e. war use of force so as to make development a inclusive process by bringing more women in political decision making.
Sweden feminist foreign policy launched in October. 2014 all about addressing the structural barriers to women’s equality. In order to achieve this, Sweden set out 7 objectives in their foreign service action plan.
1] Human rights :- Sweden has used multiple platforms tools to promote full enjoyment of human rights by all women and girls for e.g. Swedish legislation on prohibiting the purchase of sexual services publishing reports on human rights ,rule of law.
2] Freedom from violence: Sweden has worked actively in promoting women should live with dignity by strengthening the capacities to prosecute, punish perpetrators.
3] Participation in the peace process : Sweden has encouraged women participation in the peace making process and established a network of women mediators.
4] Political participation”: Sweden has pushed for implementation of gender equalities strategies in their development bank , environment and in climate fund. Sweden even supported no countries for further expanding women’s political participation by their active advocacy about freedom of expression and choice
5] Economic empowerment : Sweden has ensured gender equal opportunities to achieve the lowest unemployment rate across the EU. The Swedish government focused on gender equality work, gender equal working conditions and gender equal health. They also made men active participants in their economic empowerment objective by launching the He For She campaign emphasizing on the view that gender equality is an issue of both men and women alike.
6] Sexual and reproductive health rights : Sweden has launched sexual and reproductive health rights policy on the premise of action and self determination of women. it includes no of issues such as interlinking gender equality with sex education( particularly paying attention to vulnerable group) right to contraceptives, safe abortions, maternity care and neo natal care
combat prostitution and human trafficking also includes sexual and reproductive health rights’ policies.
7] Swedish foreign service internal activities support and advance the policy : Swedish foreign service has taken steps to strengthen gender perspective for internal activities like human resources wage development, gender responsive budgeting. Develop work on governance planning. taken steps to strengthen the personal safety of women. Given priority in family conflict matters in strategic work in the consular area. Used external internal communication with public diplomacy for spreading of information, advocacy efforts, to gain support and further develop Sweden feminist foreign policy to gain action oriented result, they started taking regular assessment and review.
Indian foreign policy through prism of Sweden feminist foreign policy: A comparative analysis
Any country’s foreign policy is meant to ensure its global image and further expand its national interest. India’s foreign policy is governed by its history, geography, economics and polity.
There are multiple factors that are shaping our foreign policy for e.g.; historical factors like colonial legacy, anti imperialism, foreign policy structure from British India geographical factors economical factors but all it lacks gender centered approach when relating to Sweden’s feminist foreign policy which all revolves around 3R rights representation, resources but Indian foreign policy seems lack of coherence where policies lack on representation inclusivity, participation of less women inside and outside of decision making process of government. The World Economic Forum released its Gender Gap report where India has slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of 156 countries where political participation maintains the largest gap. The number of women in parliament stands low at 14%. 4% of women ministers in parliament declined from 23% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021. This all necessitates mainstreaming of the gendered centre approach in our broader policy objectives.
In Indian foreign policy core areas such as highest decision making, high command culture, security , diplomacy are still in the domain of men. India needs to shed down this conventional approach and pursue diplomacy by adopting 3R formulae ensuring full rights making sure adequate representation in realms of all strata of politics and foreign policy securing their health and reproductive rights, allocating appropriate resources wherever needed altogether by diplomacy as a tool for peace and gender equality.
After all feminism is a comprehensive approach to make peace sustainable according to John Frisell. It is well known that changing norms takes time but most important is the political willpower to change it. Research has shown that more women leads to more peace in international relations. Where there are more women in the international relations decision making process there is less likelihood of any hostilities, and this leads to more stability spearheaded by less conflict and more peace . In fact if you empower women you empower the whole society so there is a high need to develop a new global consensus based on equity, human dignity and rights. When there is more equality, the state is more powerful. India needs to rethink their security intersectionality from the point of view of people who’ve left behind i.e. women . That is necessary for peace and security of the nation because women are the hope of any nation. They do not just talk but also have the ability to walk and run the nation peacefully happily. It is now high time to bring more women to the negotiating table so that women do not just stand but also time for women to stand up.
Reference :
https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/december-2017/the-three-rs-of feminist-foreign-policy/
https://www.government.se/information-material/2017/10/swedens feminist-foreign-policy–examples-from-three-years-of-implementation/
https://globalgenderjustice.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/why-gender equality-must-be-a-priority-the-model-of-the-swedish-feminist-foreign policy/
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