Page 8 - A Gender-Sensitive Indian Foreign Policy- Why? and How?

Indian Council
of World Affairs

Chair and Moderator Good afternoon to all. Let me express my sincere thanks to the ICWA for
- Amb. Nirupama inviting me to chair this conversation on what I regard to be a very important
Menon Rao (Former
Foreign Secretary concern in foreign policy today.
of India)
As diplomats today, women or men, we work not only to practice the craft of
diplomacy, but we are concerned with matters concerning national security,
defence, trade and development, apart from the exercise of soft, or what
is a better term, smart power. This is the life cycle of foreign policy today.
But turning to the subject of gender, in its traditional form and structure,
foreign policy has not dedicated much focus or, attention, in a coherent way,
to the impact of its workings on women and children. While as a country,
in India, we have rightly prioritized diplomatic solutions over military
ones what is the attention we have given to questions of women, peace
and security in policy conceptualization, and has voice been given to those
traditionally ignored? We are proud of the contributions of our women to UN
peacekeeping, and rightly so, but there is still value to be infused in the whole
terrain of gender sensitivity in our foreign policy, especially as more women
are added to our diplomatic strength and they take on key responsibilities in
the foreign service of the country.

Women have a predisposition to diplomacy - it is wired into our genes.
Aristophanes’ comedy, Lysistrate (400 BC) is about women from three
different cities who frustrated by the lack of success of men in matters of war
and peace, organize themselves to end the Peloponnesian war. The metaphor
Aristophanes used for the work of these women was weaving, “to portray
women of exceptional diplomatic ability, who pull together the strands
of society, to negotiate peace and ‘weave the fabric of nations’. In an ideal
1
world, there would be recognition of these innate qualities of women. But
life is far from perfect. And, the inescapable reality is that men, as it has been
said, have the muscle, the media and the money to back them up even as we
women weave the fabric of diplomacy on the charkhas of life. The union of
equality that we need, equality for all, the sharing of strengths of men and
women, should be our goal.

We are proud of the contributions of our women to UN
peacekeeping, and rightly so, but there is still value to be infused
in the whole terrain of gender sensitivity in our foreign policy,
especially as more women are added to our diplomatic strength

and they take on key responsibilities in the foreign service of
the country.

1 Stella Kyriakides , ‘Women in diplomacy - delivered at the “Women in Diplomacy” event hosted by the Ministry
8 of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus’, 21 February 2020, European Commission, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/com-
missioners/2019-2024/kyriakides/announcements/women-diplomacy-delivered-women-diplomacy-event-host-
ed-ministry-foreign-affairs-cyprus_en

Indian Council of World Affairs An ICWA Conversation