Do we urgently need more women in diplomacy, or not?

April 5, 2022

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 34, who is also the world's youngest prime minister. Photo: EPA

The gist:

There are 193 countries in the world. In 2021: 22 had a female head of state, 13 had gender-equal cabinets, and 3 had gender-equal legislatures (where women are elected to 50% of the seats.)

Some might look at these “depressing statistics and be alarmed: why are we not seeing more women lead nations, governments, legislatures and embassies?”

Others might “sound concerned, yet ultimately ask: ‘So what? What difference does having more women in leadership positions make?’”

The shortest answer is that it makes a large and very positive one and we have evidence to back up this assertion.

The Stats:

• An analysis of 194 countries published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum found that Covid-19 outcomes were “systematically better” in countries led by women. Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin oversaw more proactive and co-ordinated responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic.

• There is also evidence that female leaders focus on important socio-economic issues more than their male counterparts do. Drawing on over 40 years of bill-sponsorship data in the US, researchers found that women representatives sponsor crucial bills related to health, education, economic empowerment and gender-based violence more than men do.

• A separate study of parliamentarians in the US, UK, Rwanda and Russia, found that women pass more legislation than their male counterparts, and co-sponsor bills with other female colleagues across the political aisle at a higher rate than men.

• Women’s representation also increases political stability and peace. Several studies found that when more women are included in government, the likelihood of conflict decreases significantly. An analysis of 182 signed peace agreements between 1989 and 2011 by Inclusive Security found that they are 35 per cent more likely to hold and last when women are involved in the negotiation and mediation process. The inclusion of women in political decision-making reduces the likelihood of conflict, corruption, instability, state-sponsored terrorism and sexual violence.

After listing these stats, however, the author’s concede that:

“…we’re not living in a world where gender equality is a reality. As such, we cannot know for certain whether a gender equal world will be more peaceful or whether the likelihood of war and the persistence of instability, poverty and man-made crises will diminish if more women have decision-making power.”

While, “the evidence above seems to indicate as much,” to “arrive at a definitive answer, more women need to be in senior political and diplomatic roles, in boardrooms, cabinets and parliaments, and governments must ensure that domestic and foreign policies empower women around the world.”

They eventually conclude that merit, not gender, is a better “asset” for diplomacy.

This is precisely why #thefaxx.co exists: to present the empirical data that diverse leadership-men and women, BIPOC and minority inclusion—creates a stronger safer world for more people, when representation in all areas looks more like, more of the people it ‘represents.’

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