On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the progress made toward gender justice and reflect on the long road still ahead of us in creating a progressive foreign policy that is intersectional, inclusive, and equitable.

Current U.S. foreign policy continues to be fueled by systems of oppression that disproportionately harm impacted groups, particularly women, trans, and gender non-confirming people. At Win Without War we believe there cannot be peace without intersectional gender justice, and we are working to ensure our vision of foreign policy includes a feminist approach.

In the spirit of broadening our collective understanding of where we are and what we’re up against, Win Without War staff have put together the following reading list.

• Fighting for a Feminist Foreign Policy (Inkstick Media): A feminist foreign policy is the change we need to put impacted communities at the forefront of U.S. policymaking. 
• The Case for a Truly Representative Democracy (Girls’ Globe): Tokenized representation in policy work does not make us more democratic or inclusive of diverse voices.  
• Letter to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on women’s rights and gender equality (Brettonwoods Project): Read this letter from civil society calling out the International Monetary Fund on their inadequate “women’s entrepreneurship” programs and lifting up the disproportionate impact on women that decades of IMF austerity policies have had. 
• Afghanistan deal: Don’t trade away women’s rights to the Taliban. Put us at the table. (USA TODAY): More than 40 Afghan civil society groups from across the country say: reserving the rights of women and all Afghan citizens is non negotiable in the next phase of talks.
• Reproductive Justice Advocates Speak: ‘We Must Fight for a Future that Includes All of Us’ (COLORLINES): If we want to achieve reproductive justice, equity, and rights for all, we can’t stop at the basic standards Roe has set.
• ICE Is Torturing LGBTQ Immigrants by Putting Them in Solitary (Truthout): “[Poor, queer, undocumented folks who deal with mental illness] are removed from community and support, making it harder for them to access care and healing. We strongly believe that removal from community is not what people need. People need access to care and resources.”
• ‘We demand clear action and justice’: Jackson Heights community honors transgender woman killed in Puerto Rico (QNS): Alexa’s murder is one out of countless cases of violent hatred, discrimination, and terror that transgender people are forced to face every day.
• Latin American Feminists Rising Up Against Violence. The International Community Should Join Them. (Ms. Magazine): “Latina feminist activists have poured onto the streets to challenge government and police officials for their failure to protect women from this lethal discrimination. Pointing to the misogynist and machismo institutions, they have made clear that their inaction is complicity.” 
• 7 States Step Up Efforts To Fight Violence Against Indigenous Women (NPR): There’s no excuse for how much US federal, state, and local authorities have utterly failed so far in securing justice and safety for Indigenous women and girls. 
• Kandi Mossett: Standing Against Big Oil to Defend the Earth, Water and Indigenous Communities (Bioneers): Check out this keynote speech from Indigenous grassroots leader Kandi Mossett on defending indigenous lands and communities from the negative impacts of the fossil fuel industry.
• Gender and Climate Change (United Nations Development Programme): “The adverse impacts of climate change continue to overly burden the poorest and the most vulnerable, especially poor women…On the other hand, women are powerful agents of change and continue to make increasing and significant contributions to sustainable development, despite existing structural and sociocultural barriers.”
• The Exhaustion of Empowerment (THIS Magazine): “Most of all, I hope that the day arrives where Muslim women and girls don’t have to prove that we are Empowered™ at all.” 
• Does This Year Make Me Look Angry? (Elle Magazine): “If you wanted to avoid our rage, perhaps you shouldn’t have left us with so little to lose.”

These articles are great reads, but more than being informative, by clicking, reading and sharing them – you create real incentives for more platforms to publish the work of feminist leaders. We hope you find them useful!

You can learn more about some of the history behind International Women’s Day here.