New York Times: What Do Sweden and Mexico Have in Common? A Feminist Foreign Policy
“In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Chris Purdy, chief executive of one of the world’s largest providers of contraceptives and family planning services, DKT International, sent out an email asking for help. … ‘The Swedish government was the only one that came back to us immediately’ and agreed to provide DKT with $1.9 million, Mr. Purdy said. That infusion of cash was on top of the roughly $55 million that Sweden had already pledged to DKT in 2016 for a six-year period. Sweden’s focus on sexual and reproductive care in the midst of a crisis is an example of its feminist foreign policy — an approach, first adopted in 2014, that places women and girls at the center of almost every diplomatic decision the government makes, with the ultimate aim of advancing gender equality around the world. Six years and several raised eyebrows later, more countries are now following Sweden’s lead, raising the pressure on the United States to do the same…” (Gupta, 7/21).