In 2020, Mexico became the first country of the global south adopting a feminist foreign policy. Its approach focuses on a more intersectional dimension compared to other countries. Mexico has been activly engaging in  gender equality efforts in the international community. It began a partnership with the European Union and the United Nations to implement the Spotlight Initiative, and is part of the Genderation Equality Forum. At the same time, the incongruency between the country’s aspirations and leadership on the world stage and the actual state of gender relations in the country remains problematic. On average, about 11 women are killed, including for reasons related to their gender everyday. Despite large challenges prevailing in the country, Mexico has a strong domestic feminist movement, which has achieved some impressive successes in recent years.

We want to discuss how Mexico has applied the feminist foreign policy and how it can be evaluated more than 3 years after its first introduction. Moreover we want to shed light on how the Feminist Foreign Policy might have influenced national politics and the feminist struggle in Mexico and the region at large. We seek to examine Mexico’s Feminist Foreign Policys positive effects as well as its challenges both from an activist and diplomatic international relations point of view.

This event is part of our larger event series on the current situation of Feminist Foreign Policies, where aim to highlight different aspects of feminist foreign policy and the ideas and implementations of feminist foreign policy all over the world.

We are happy to welcome

Daniela Phillipson, a feminist researcher and Ph.D. Scholar in Politics and International Relations at Monash University, Melbourne. Her research focuses on gender-based violence and militarization in Mexico from a feminist political economy perspective. She has 10 years of experience advising and collaborating with feminist and racial justice organizations like CFFP or WILPF. Moreover, she is also the co-founder of Internacional Feminista, a multilingual platform to advance critical dialogues on foreign policy, international relations, and gender.

and

Patricia von Wartenberg Salgado, the first Embassy Secretary of the Mexican Embassy in Berlin, responsible for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights. She joined the Foreign Service of Mexico in 2007, and previously worked at the Embassies in South Africa and Cuba, where her work focused on promoting technical, scientific and academic cooperation. She then served as Deputy Director General for Regional Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she served as Mexico’s Deputy National Coordinator for the Pacific Alliance.

Please register using the form on this page. Shortly before the meeting, we will send you the zoom link at the email address provided.

Polis180

This event is organized by Polis180’s program Gender and International Politics.
Polis180 is a grassroot think tank for foreign and European policy. It was founded in June 2015 by a group of committed young people with diverse backgrounds and political standpoints. We now count over 750 association members. We aim to be the most innovative think tank and talent factory of and for young experts and enable them as an inclusive platform to significantly influence foreign and European policy decisions. With our projects, we offer young people the opportunity to formulate and specify their political demands and to present them to decision-makers.

Contact

Linda Müller (she/her) – Head of Program Gender and International Politics (linda.mueller@polis180.org)

Organizers

Linda Müller
Marcel Bodewig
Fabia van Melis