CSE Hosts Lecture on Feminist Foreign Policy
On March 31, 2021, the Center for the Study of Europe (CSE), an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, hosted a virtual lecture on the importance of feminism and inclusion of women in foreign policy considerations.
This discussion featured Veronika Wand-Danielsson, Head of the Americas Directorate at Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and former Ambassador of Sweden to NATO and to France. Julie Suk, Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law and a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School and Professor of Sociology, Political Science, and Liberal Studies at CUNY, provided comments. Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School, moderated the event.
In her remarks, Wand-Danielsson described her own country’s leading role in advancing the rights of women, especially during the last 50 years, with breakthrough reforms that have strengthened the position of women in Swedish society and encouraged their participation in the labor market. Sweden’s parental leave policy, for example, has been reformed several times in order to encourage equal parenthood and overcome discrimination in hiring. She also shared her view that government has a responsibility to integrate gender perspectives – the different needs of men and women, for example – in all policy areas, including foreign policy.
A recording of the event can be viewed below.
The mission of the Center for the Study of Europe is to promote understanding of Europe through its cultural heritage; its political, economic, and religious histories; its art, literature, music, and philosophy; as well as through its recent emergence as a new kind of international form through the European Union (EU). Operationally, the center provides a focal point and institutional support for the study of Europe across Boston University through coordination of teaching missions, support of research, community-building among faculty and students, and outreach beyond the University. Visit the center’s website for more.