To reboot the world, we need to change the way we make policies. This is as urgent as ever, as we face escalating crises, around the world and right here in the US. From confronting climate catastrophe to ending wars, grassroots feminists worldwide are on the frontlines of the crises that define our age and are shaping solutions.
They are holding the line against assaults on rights, dignity and a century of progressive policy gains. Their vision of feminist futures – of a just, peaceful and sustainable world – has mobilized a new wave of progressive organizing and power.
Together, we’ll push for a US foreign policy rooted in care and repair for the harms of the past. This is the moment to push forward unapologetically. To advance progressive, feminist priorities. To center women, girls, Black and Indigenous communities, and people of color-led movements in policymaking.
That's why this initiative, the Feminist Policy Jumpstart, brings global women’s voices and solutions to progressive policymaking in the US.
We want US policymakers to champion gender justice and human rights across domestic and foreign affairs. We want to build avenues for activists and organizations, locally and globally, to engage with progressive political leaders. We want to make sure global grassroots communities all around the world have spaces to shape the US policies that impact their lives, and that US policies reflect the lived experience and expertise of grassroots feminist leaders.
Leveraging our more than 35 years of working with women in more than 50 countries, the Jumpstart advances a feminist policy agenda developed in partnership with grassroots women worldwide. We create the space for progressive policymakers to hear directly from women whose communities are impacted by US policies and who offer solutions to some of the most urgent crises of our time. We know that when we listen to women and girls at the grassroots, we can create policies that are better for everyone.
- offering a global gender justice perspective on climate policy, including the Green New Deal;
- advancing the voices of women peacebuilders on the frontlines of war to bring lasting peace and stability;
- and advancing feminist economic justice policies rooted in an ethic of care.
- We advance a policy agenda deeply rooted in feminist values
- We build ties between progressive foreign and domestic policy
- We generate increased attention in the media and public discourse on gender justice and progressive policy
- We strengthen progressive movements and policy protections for women and families worldwide
Right now is a moment of opportunity for feminist, progressive policy rooted in care.
MADRE is putting forth a plan to address the pandemic with a feminist lens.
A Feminist Foreign Policy for Yemen: Women’s Leadership towards Inclusive Peace
In Yemen, the COVID-19 pandemic now adds another layer of devastation for communities affected by war, hunger, and poverty. As frontline responders and drivers of long-term peace, women should be at the heart of efforts to advance a sustainable peace in Yemen. Here are our policy recommendations for peacebuilding as a key response to the pandemic in Yemen.
(August 2020)
Policy Guide for a Feminist Green New Deal
In March 2021, the Feminist Green New Deal coalition launched a policy guide for policymakers and movement advocates to identify, assess, and build intersectional feminist policies for climate justice at all levels. This resource, published in English and Spanish, provides an intersectional gender lens into climate policy, along with concrete tools, resources, and recommendations.
(March 2021)
To Fix US Foreign Policy, Put Feminism First
In March 2021, in honor of Women’s History Month, MADRE published our vision of transformative US foreign policy that centers grassroots liberation and intersectional feminism. Our vision for feminist foreign policy demands an understanding of the centrality of gender justice, human rights and a dismantling of toxic norms of masculinity in every realm of foreign policy, from diplomacy and trade to defense and foreign aid.
(March 2021)
Grassroots Feminist Visions: A Way Forward from the War on Terror
In September 2021, we supported the Feminist Peace Initiative in hosting an event titled “Grassroots Feminist Visions: A Way Forward from the War on Terror,” featuring inputs from feminist activists in communities directly impacted by more than two decades of harmful US policies. This event helped establish new conversations with domestic organizations interested in our anti-militarist, internationalist lens and was broadcast in English, Spanish, Arabic and Korean simultaneously.
(September 2021)
Advancing Climate Justice in US Policy
In July 2021, we co-hosted with the Feminist Green New Deal coalition a Congressional briefing with Members of Congress and key policy staff to offer an intersectional feminist analysis of current climate legislation and policy proposals, drawing from the coalition’s recently published policy screening guide: Building Feminist Policies for Climate Justice. A recording of the briefing is available in English and in Spanish.
(July 2021)
On Afghanistan, Biden Must Listen to Pro-Peace Feminists
In September 2021, following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, MADRE worked with Afghan women grassroots leaders to identify a transformative US policy for Afghanistan rooted in principles of grassroots feminism and the lived experience and expertise of Afghan women. This op-ed advocates for a feminist foreign policy for Afghanistan rooted in accountabiity and reparations.
(September 2021)
Check out our library of resources to learn more:
Op-eds
Biden's Climate Action Woefully Inadequate to Meet Escalating Crisis (March 2022)
Afghan Women Aren’t Liberated by Humanitarian Catastrophe (January 2022)
Progressive Women are Developing a Feminist Foreign Policy. (May 2019)
Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights Wants to Turn Back the Clock. We Are the Future. (July 2019)
Population Control Isn’t the Answer to Our Climate Crisis. (September 2019)
Women are Behind the Most Successful Uprisings of 2019. Here’s Why. (December 2019)
Policy Briefs & Analyses
A U.S. Foreign Policy Fit for the 21st Century (January 2022)
Women Bring Peace in Yemen (February 2021)
Feminist Policy Demands for the Biden Era (January 2021)
A Feminist Foreign Policy for Yemen: Women's Leadership towards Inclusive Peace (August 2020)
What you need to know: a glimpse at US foreign policy and climate policy in the Democratic party platform (August 2020)
COVID-19 Stimulus Packages (June 2020)
Resilience and a Just Recovery Through a Feminist Green New Deal (May 2020)
COVID-19 International Response and Recovery Act (May 2020)
Robust International Response to the Pandemic Act (April 2020)
Statement on a Feminist Foreign Policy to Confront the Coronavirus Pandemic (April 2020)
Sanctions Are an Act of War: A Q&A about Economic Sanctions (February 2020)
Uprising in Iraq: One Wave in a Global Surge (November 2019)
Key Questions to Shape a Feminist Green New Deal (September 2019)
Repealing the AUMF (June 2019)
Q&A on the Crisis in Venezuela (May 2019)
US Complicity in Yemen’s War and the Impact on Women and Girls (April 2019)
Progress for Afro-Colombian Women’s Demands for Peace (March 2019)
How Women Lead Us to Peace: Ensuring Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding (March 2019)
