In today's episode, we dive into the world of women in power and gender equality with our special guest, Yasmina Benslimane. Yasmina is a feminist activist, consultant, and women empowerment coach known for her dedication to advancing gender equality and empowering women. She founded Politics4Her, a non-profit organization that advocates for greater political participation and leadership for women while promoting gender equality in governance and politics.

Yasmina's journey in empowering women is driven by her belief that everyone deserves a seat at the table and a voice in shaping the policies and decisions that affect their lives. Through Politics4Her, she promotes gender equality, intersectionality, and social justice to create a more equitable and inclusive world for all.

With a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Communications from Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain, as well as a Master's degree in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from the University for Peace in Costa Rica and a Master's degree in Forced Migration and Refugee Protection from the University of London, Yasmina brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the conversation.

Throughout her eight-year professional career, Yasmina has worked with various human rights institutions, NGOs, and United Nations agencies in different countries. Her expertise extends to advocacy work, policy development, program implementation, and digital activism, making her a leading voice in women's empowerment.

In this thought-provoking episode, we tackle the barriers hindering women's progress in attaining positions of power and influence. We delve into gender stereotypes, biases, the male-dominated nature of leadership, limited opportunities, discouragement, gender-based violence, online harassment targeting women in politics and human rights defenders, forced marriages, and discriminatory laws. We also shed light on historical exclusion and successful movements challenging it, focusing on Afghanistan and Sudan, highlighting the impact of Western hegemony, gender apartheid, the international community's failures, and women mobilizing for education and resources. Additionally, we explore why women's empowerment differs between the global north and south, discussing the responsibility of the global north and strategies for ensuring the representation of diverse women, including amplifying their voices, education, youth engagement, and addressing intersectional issues.

Join us as we embark on this enlightening conversation with Yasmina Benslimane, uncovering the challenges and opportunities in pursuing gender equality and women's empowerment.

We explore the question of whether the United States is colonizing knowledge through international students. We are joined by two experts on the topic: Maria Carolina Sintura (Sintu) is a teacher and Ph.D. student in the English Department at UCSB. Her research brings together the Legal Humanities, Critical University Studies, Critical Race Theory, and Women of Color Feminisms as she studies the discourses constructed around the figure of international students and scholars at the U.S American University, and Rohini Roy is a 2023 MALD candidate at the Fletcher School with a focus on gender and intersectional analysis and human security. Currently, Rohini’s research focuses on developing queer methods for social research.

We discuss how the US has historically dominated the production and dissemination of knowledge and how this has had a disproportionate impact on people from developing countries. We also explore the ways in which international students are often forced to assimilate into US academic norms, which can lead to the loss of their own cultural and intellectual traditions.

Resources on the topic

Resources shared by Rohini Roy:

• Anumol, Dipali, and Rohini Roy. "The Racism of Being Tolerated: The Experience of Being Brown Women in ‘International Relations.’" Tufts Observer, 12 Dec. 2022, tuftsobserver.org/the-racism-of-being-tolerated-the-experience-of-being-brown-women-in-international-relations/.
• Tracking Epistemic Violence: Tracking Practices of Silencing. By Moya Bailey. Hypatia, vol. 35, no. 4, 2020, pp. 878–899. doi:10.1111/hypa.12813.
• Ahmed, Sara. Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others. Duke University Press, 2006.

Resources shared by Maria Carolina Sintura:

• Ferguson, Roderick A. “The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference.” Chapter 6 in The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference, by Roderick A. Ferguson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
• Ferguson, Roderick A. 2012. The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference. Difference Incorporated. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press. Chapter 5: Immigration and the Drama of Affirmation.
• Christian, Barbara. “Diminishing Returns: Can Black Feminism(s) Survive the Academy?” New Black Feminist Criticism, 1985-2000, edited by Gloria Bowles et al., University of Illinois Press, 2007, pp. 204–15.
• Hong, Grace Kyungwon. “The Future of Our Worlds: Black Feminism and the Politics of Post-Diaspora.” Social Text, no. 26, 2008, pp. 1–24. doi:10.1215/01642472-2008-004.

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda is a UN framework that promotes women's participation in all aspects of peace and security efforts. It is based on four pillars: participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. Despite significant progress, there are still several challenges to its effective implementation, including a lack of political will, inadequate funding, limited participation of women, insufficient data, and gender-based violence. The WPS agenda is being implemented in various ways around the world, such as women's participation in peace negotiations, women's role in peacekeeping, gender-responsive peacebuilding, protection of women and girls, and the development of National Action Plans.

In this episode, I dive into a conversation with Maria Luisa Moreira* about the four pillars of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. How does is look today? What is happening in Ukraine? Why is it so necessary?

Listen to the episode and find the answer to many of these questions.

*Maria Luisa Moreira is an Advisor and Programme Manager at PCS, a Lisbon-based think tank, and the Secretary General of WIIS Portugal. She has an MSc in Women, Peace, and Security from the LSE and a BA in International Relations from the University of Essex. Maria Luisa won the first edition of the DGPDN Award in 2021 with an original policy position paper on the implementation of the WPS Agenda in the Portuguese MFA and MoD mandates. In 2022, she was a presenter at the NATO Committee on Gender Perspective Annual Conference and a guest speaker at the NATO Youth Summit. Maria Luisa was previously selected for the OSCE-UNODA Peace and Security Fellowship and has worked at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, the Council of the European Union in Brussels, and the British Embassy in Lisbon. Her current research projects address the future of the WPS Agenda within foreign policy and international diplomacy, and she was a guest speaker at the Portuguese Navy's International Women's Day conference in 2023, where she presented perspectives and guidelines for a feminist national defense policy.

In this episode, we explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) and what gender has to do with it. My guest, Kelly Chen, shares her work and perspectives with us and gives us a complete introduction to Gender and AI.

Kelly Chen is an interdisciplinary artist working and living in Boston, Massachusetts. She works in moving images, sonic installations, and software to reveal the intersecting histories of computation and early cinema as they relate to authority and resistance in social, political, and economic systems. Her work critically addresses invisibility and traceability in the processing of physical and digital artifacts, the authority given to archives, and biases in history-making with critical code. She is a student in Media Arts and Data Science at Northeastern University.

Feminist Foreign Policy seeks to incorporate a gender and human rights perspective into international foreign affairs and policy. This episode discusses what feminist foreign policy looks like in different countries, its challenges, and how it may look in the future. My special guest is Daniela Philipson Peace and Security Ph.D. Scholar at Monash University. She has authored several Op-Eds and articles for international outlets, such as the Yale Journal of International Affairs and Chatham House. In 2022, Daniela co-founded Internacional Feminista, a multilingual platform to advance critical dialogues on foreign policy, international relations, and feminism in Latin America. (check her full bio HERE)

Resources cited during the episode:

· CFFP: https://centreforfeministforeignpolicy.org/feminist-foreign-policy

· Mamacash: https://www.mamacash.org/es/el-activismo-feminista-funciona

· ICRW: https://www.icrw.org/

· IWDA: https://iwda.org.au/resource/feminist-foreign-policy-anoverview/#:~:text=WHAT%20IS%20FEMINIST%20FOREIGN%20POLICY,of%20peaceful%20and%20flourishing%20societies.

· Kubernein initiative, Inclusive Foreign Policy: https://kuberneininitiative.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Opportunities-for-a-more-Inclusive-Indian-Foreign-Policy.pdf

· Internacional Feminista: https://www.internacionalfeminista.com/#publicaciones-publications

· Chatham House, Feminist Foreign Policy Needs Upgrade: https://www.chathamhouse.org/publications/the-world-today/2022-10/feminist-foreign-policy-needs-upgrade

The 27th session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - COP27 - is the world's most important conference on climate. The episode explores how diversity and inclusion look at COP. What challenges exist? What has been done? And what can be better for making it a space with diverse voices and representation?

The speakers for this episode were:

Eda Kosma. She is the Public Authorities, States, and Regions Fellow at the CDP, a global non-profit that runs the world's environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states, and regions.

Lily Hartzel. Editor and Chief of The Fletcher Forum, today's sponsor for this episode. Additionally, she interned for the US Department of Treasury Office of International Affairs Office Climate & Environment during the summer.

Vanessa Daza. She has vast experience in Environmental Justice in Latin America and Feminist Sustainable Development. Currently, she is pursuing her SJD at Harvard Law school.

In today's episode, I talk about "Why women in Latin America should care about what is happening in Iran?" I interview Belen Torchiaro, an Argentinian political science major, Muslim, feminist, and women's rights activist. The episode is hosted in Spanish.

You can follow Belen on social media as @BeluTorch

This episode of The Gendering International Relations Podcast was sponsored by The Fletcher Forum at The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram as @genderingir.

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En el episodio de hoy, hablo de "¿Por qué nos debería importar a las mujeres en Latinoamérica lo que pasa en Irán?". Entrevisté a Belén Torchiaro, argentina, licenciada en ciencias políticas, musulmana, feminista y activista por los derechos de la mujer. El episodio está presentado en español.

Puedes seguir a Belén en las redes sociales como @BeluTorch

Este episodio del The Gendering International Relations Podcast fue patrocinado por The Fletcher Forum de The Fletcher School at Tufts University. No olvides seguirnos en Instagram como @genderingir.