Women

by Elizabeth Samson On November 10, 2010, the United Nations took an important step towards committing itself to female empowerment with the election of 41 member states to the board of a new agency—the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Known as UN Women, the new body brings four organizations that […]

We’re looking for a great intern who will devote 10 hours a week to our volunteer-run site. Main duties are writing posts and promoting Women and Foreign Policy on the Web. This is a perfect fit for an undergraduate or graduate student with an interest in international affairs who wants to gain experience in journalism […]

by Lilia Shevtsova Russia continues to drift through the zone of uncertainty. The global financial crisis forced the Russian elite to realize that the Russian petrostate would pose obstacles to economic revival and even stability. This elite understands today that reforms are the only way to stimulate economic growth and prevent the social turmoil. “Renewal […]

by Deborah Fallows The village of Xizhou is nestled in a verdant strip of land in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province. To the east lies Erhai Lake, where cormorants play. To the west, hills rise to the Tibetan Plateau, where herders graze their yaks. During World War II, Xizhou offered a first radio contact point for […]

Barack Obama tells bullies to just stop it.

By Shrabani Basu In the summer of 1887 as Queen Victoria approached the Golden Jubilee of her reign, she was overcome with feelings of loneliness. She had never stopped mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861, and had chosen to wear widow’s black all her life. As she looked ahead […]

Greetings from Edinburgh! I am so glad that you stopped by our group blog, Women and Foreign Policy. Our motto is “lively commentary on international affairs from women around the world.” We have a special interest in the role of women in political life and, for the lack of a better phrase, women’s issues. Some […]

by Hugh Hunter For almost 10 years I was the British consul for Florida, based in Orlando. During this time, that office was the busiest British consulate in the world in terms of the numbers of British citizens in prison: many hundreds arrested every year and almost 200 long-term inmates at any one time. Once, […]

By Cordelia Rizzo In 2007, Mexico City’s legislature affirmed a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy during the first trimester. Today, this remains the only pro-choice law in the whole country. In response, conservative congresses in other parts of Mexico have toughened their own anti-abortion laws. But ordinary Mexicans are just beginning to […]

*Russian spy Anna Chapman gets her own action figure in the United States. Gets serenaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin? *Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck says that you should vote for him in the Republican primary because, unlike his opponent, he does “not wear high heels.” Maybe we should start a “Ken Buck Should Campaign […]

By Cordelia Rizzo Tired of the erosion of the social fabric caused by the proliferation of organized crime heists and other social misfortunes in Mexico? Televisa, one of the country’s largest TV consortiums, thinks it has an American Idol-style answer for you! It is indeed quite a contest. Last June, it introduced Iniciativa México, a […]

Jessica D’Itri Little Tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith consists of 17 very short stories, each featuring a distasteful female protagonist. The writing is very spare, so the tales come across almost as fables. Each one tells a tragic, weird story where somebody ends up dead or worse. The female characters are completely unredeemable, so […]