“Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy is not a replacement or an addition to foreign policy; it is about applying a gender equality perspective across all foreign policy matters.”

The Consul General of Sweden in Istanbul, Therese Hydén, explains what Sweden’s feminist foreign policy means in practice.

Sweden has the lowest female-to-male ratio of average time spent on unpaid domestic, care, and volunteer work. Good, of course, but there is more to be done. The new report State of the World's Fathers has a big ambition: helping to achieve equality in unpaid care work – and, by extension, equality between women and men, girls and boys – at home, at work, and in broader society. Check it out! 

Sudan is one of the most difficult countries in the world for children to grow up in. UNICEF is working to prevent the genital mutilation of girls and to create safe environments for children who grow up in conflict zones or as refugees.

Sweden is a major donor to the programme, which reached 580,000 children in 2017.

There are growing reactionary faith movements limiting women's rights and choices, as well as more progressive faith groups acting as counter-movements. Faith-partnerships is one way to support Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) globally.

The Swedish government agency Sida and the UNFPA recently co-hosted an event on SRHR and religion, where civil society, UN bodies, academia and faith-based actors discussed innovative methods.

She’s fighting for education for children, clinics for women and health care for poor people.

Sima Samar’s fight for human rights began in a hospital and took her all the way to the Afghan government. Today, she is Chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

At the end of April, gender equality advocates from around the world gathered for the Tunis Forum on Gender Equality. It was an important and successful meeting in a time when authoritarian tendencies are spreading.

“At the same time, we must not forget that in other parts of the world, there is a sense of momentum for gender equality,” said Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström in her opening speech.

Last year, the first major WikiGap initiative was carried out at some 50 missions abroad around the world. WikiGap has now spread beyond the Swedish Foreign Service and generated more than 27 000 new and expanded Wikipedia articles on prominent women in various fields. Meet one of the most productive editors: Andriy Hrytsenko from Ukraine.

Together, we want to bring about a more gender-equal internet – and a more gender-equal world. #WikiGap is a campaign that gathers people around the world to add more content to Wikipedia about women figures, experts and role models in various fields. 

Negotiations were hard and polarised at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Several countries displayed strong resistance to progressive language, not least in the area of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

Finally, however, conclusions could nevertheless be adopted, which may be seen as a victory for the multilateral system. But this did not happen without some protests.

"Our feminist foreign policy works. It inspires others, and it delivers concrete results."

Check out the speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström at Seminar on Feminist Foreign Policy.

She was the world’s first woman ambassador to the United Nations when she took office, at the height of the Cold War. Yet Agda Rössel remains relatively little known – in some ways forgotten.

We want to change this. Here is the story of Adga Rössel – pioneer and role model.

The family-friendly policies introduced by Nordic countries over the past 50 years and associated increases in female employment have boosted growth in GDP per capita by between 10% and 20%, according to a new OECD report.

In October 2014, Sweden became the first country in the world to launch a feminist foreign policy.

Now, the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has launched a handbook for Sweden’s feminist foreign policy. The handbook is a resource for international work relating to gender equality and all women’s and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights.

Feminist foreign policy is an agenda for change. By achieving a more gender-equal world, we also contribute to peace, security and sustainable development. In recent years, Sweden has developed partnerships and dialogues for gender equality with a wide range of countries. This includes Tunisia, which is dedicated to the agenda and has committed to host a follow-up conference to the Stockholm Forum on Gender Equality.