Description
This paper applies a ‘gender lens’ to leadership in foreign policy-making. Leadership here is understood as practiced by both individuals within governments, and states. First, the paper summarises findings from literature regarding gender and foreign policy leadership. Much work has focused on the obstacles facing women foreign policy leaders, the ways in which perceptions of their leadership is gendered, and the debate on the extent to which, if at all, female and male foreign policy leaders exercise leadership differently. The paper takes this literature further by considering how the findings might travel to different contexts in the Global South and in different political systems (hybrid democracies, authoritarian regimes). Second, the paper considers the literature that links gender equality in domestic contexts to global leadership on issues such as gender equality, peace and conflict, and climate change. It again extends the findings by applying them to examples from the Global South and authoritarian regimes.
