Hi, I’m Bonnie Marcus and welcome to Own Your Ambition. As a former CEO, published author and executive coach, I write about the challenges and opportunities women face in their careers, and empower them to successfully navigate the complexities of the workplace today.
I also write about gender issues in the workplace and beyond and today’s newsletter is focused on Feminist Foreign Policy.
Never heard of it?
You’ll learn from my interview with Lyric Thompson, CEO and founder of the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative and Spogmay Ahmed, Senior Policy Advisor, not only what it is, but what their organization is doing in the world to redefine foreign policy and to transform deeply rooted and often colonial, patriarchal, and racist foundations of global policy into something more accountable to people, peace, and planet.
I know you’ll be inspired by their work!
When we think about foreign policy, most of us imagine diplomats, defense strategies, and national interests defined by power and borders. What rarely comes to mind is people—their safety, dignity, and ability to live free from fear and exclusion.
For decades, traditional foreign policy has been shaped largely by patriarchal, colonial, and exclusionary systems. But two women, Lyric Thompson, Founder and CEO of the Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative (FFPC), and Spogmay Ahmed, its Senior Policy Advisor, are leading an ambitious effort to rewrite that story. They are working to redefine what power looks like on the world stage.
This reframing challenges decades of foreign policy orthodoxy. Instead of centering military might or economic dominance, feminist foreign policy centers on care, equality, and sustainability. It’s a shift from protecting power to protecting people.
The mission: to transform deeply rooted and often colonial, patriarchal, and racist foundations of global policy into something more accountable to people, peace, and planet.
Their method: connection, persistence, and a radical belief in hope.
At a time when global politics is increasingly marked by polarization, populism, and the rollback of women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights, Thompson and Ahmed are leading a movement that insists diplomacy can — and must — look different.
I recently spoke with them about the origins of the Collaborative, what keeps them hopeful in dark times, and how feminist foreign policy, once dismissed as a niche Nordic experiment, has become a global force for change.
A Movement Born from Collaboration
The Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative was launched in early 2023, during a period of growing global interest in feminist approaches to diplomacy. As Spogmay explained, “The impetus for this really was a community request and interest of sorts. Our colleagues across government and civil society wanted a space and a network where they could openly and honestly engage with one another on what feminist foreign policy looks like in practice.”
Thompson and Ahmed had already been working together at the International Center for Research on Women, where early versions of this work were incubated. They saw how eager both policymakers and activists were for an honest space to exchange ideas, share challenges, and workshop practical solutions.
From that, the FFPC was born and quickly grew. Today, the Collaborative manages a network of more than 100 global partners, including government officials, academics, philanthropists, and grassroots activists.
One of its biggest annual moments is the Feminist Foreign Policy Ministerial Conference, which brings together ministers, diplomats, and civil society leaders from across the world. The most recent conference, hosted by France, marked the fourth of its kind, following previous events led by Germany, the Netherlands, and Mexico. Spain will host the next one in 2026 — a clear signal that this movement has staying power.
The Methodology: Dreaming and Doing
Lyric described FFPC’s methodology as “equal parts the magic of what happens when women get together and dream, and also having an actual organizational operational plan.”
Her approach is rooted in decades of advocacy and coalition organizing:
“You start with the problem you’re trying to solve, then identify who has the power to fix it — and build your power or proximity to those people. That’s the heart of feminist advocacy.”
Early on, the Collaborative focused on identifying and connecting the governments that were experimenting with feminist foreign policy — Sweden, Canada, Mexico, France, and Luxembourg — with the feminist theorists, activists, and policy thinkers working toward similar goals.
That combination of research and relationship-building proved catalytic. Over time, a network of women leaders from government, philanthropy, and civil society began to form around the work. These women didn’t just want to publish papers or attend conferences, they wanted a safe space to be candid about their challenges and learn from one another.
“At these big international conferences,” Lyric said, “governments are pressured to show up and talk about how well everything’s going. But behind closed doors, they need to say: this is where I’m struggling, this is where I’m encountering resistance. Help me deal with this.”
That kind of honesty, she said, has been key to the Collaborative’s success — creating trust across borders, cultures, and institutions that have long been defined by hierarchy and patriarchy.
“They’re publishing on everything from feminist foreign policy and international development to nuclear security, to men and masculinities,” Spogmay said. “Since foreign policy was birthed as a male-dominated, patriarchal field, seeing this expansion and diversification has been amazing.”
Persistence, she said, is one of the Collaborative’s greatest accomplishments. Despite systemic resistance, their agenda continues to expand into policy areas once considered untouchable—conflict, trade, migration, and security. Each step forward reclaims space for marginalized voices in the global policy conversation.
Shared Struggles, Shared Hope
One of the most striking things both women emphasized was how similar the experiences are for those trying to transform systems from within.
“It’s amazing how similar the experience is,” Lyric reflected. “Whether you’re in Libya or Luxembourg, when you’re trying to make institutions more transparent and accountable to civil society, you encounter real resistance.”
That shared struggle has also become a shared source of hope.
When I asked whether, given today’s global climate of backlash and polarization, there is still reason to be hopeful, Spogmay’s answer was powerful. She referred to the 2025 annual report, Defining Feminist Foreign Policy.
“When we first started this paper, we thought it was going to be part one of the obituary of feminist foreign policy,” she admitted. “But as we continued, we found so much resilience and progress that it actually brought us back to hope.”
Despite rollbacks and political shifts, feminist foreign policies have survived more elections than they have lost. In recent years, countries like France and Colombia have introduced new frameworks. Slovenia and Liberia are preparing to launch theirs.
Even in turbulent times, the movement continues to grow — a testament, Spogmay said, “to people needing this kind of space to workshop, to grow, and to be in community with one another.”
Learning from Backlash
Both women acknowledged that backlash has been an inevitable part of the process. But as Lyric pointed out, “the women’s movement has learned from opposition and is now fighting a little smarter.”
One key lesson from the women’s movement: don’t tie feminist policy to a single administration or political party.
“If you associate the policy with one leader or government, it’s too easy for the next to undo it,” Lyric said. “That’s what we saw in Sweden and Argentina.”
To prevent that, FFPC supports efforts to codify feminist foreign policy principles into legislation and bureaucratic frameworks, embedding them so deeply in the system that they can’t be easily dismantled.
Another powerful example came from Argentina, where the country’s former ambassador for feminist foreign policy traveled to all 24 provinces to discuss the approach and gather input.
“She went out into the country and said, ‘Here’s how we represent your needs and interests on the world stage. What do you think?’” Lyric explained. “It built real popular support — women wanted to travel with her on delegations. That’s the kind of excitement and connection we need.”
This “whole-of-society” approach, Lyric added, is what will ensure feminist foreign policy endures.
Global Success and the Power of Education
If the Collaborative’s founding vision was to make feminist foreign policy a serious global movement, their success has exceeded even their own expectations.
“When we started, the sense was that this was a niche Nordic thing,” Lyric recalled. “People would say, ‘We can’t all be Sweden.’”
A decade later, that perception has changed. Feminist foreign policy now exists in all five UN regions and has become a truly multilingual, multicultural movement.
Spogmay added that the expansion of education and public discourse has been critical to that success:
“When I studied foreign policy, there was rarely any mention of women — let alone human rights. And now, I’m being invited to speak to universities where students are eager to learn about feminist foreign policy.”
She explained that this growing academic and civic interest has helped shift the very foundation of how we understand “security.”
“Feminist foreign policy intentionally reframes security as human security — not just the defense of borders or national interests, but what makes people feel safe, dignified, and included.”
This educational ripple effect has created a new generation of thinkers and policymakers approaching diplomacy through a lens of equity and inclusion.
“Just seeing this expansion and diversification in such a traditionally male-dominated field has been amazing,” Spogmay said.
Finding Hope in Global Sisterhood
As an American woman, I confessed to Lyric that hope feels in short supply these days. Rights are being rolled back, divisions deepened, and many of us are wondering how to keep fighting when progress seems to vanish overnight.
Her response was a powerful reminder that hope, too, can be political.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the politics of hope and inclusion versus the politics of rage and exclusion,” she said. “And I saw the former on display this week.”
She told me about a recent visit to Paris, where French feminist organizations hosted a reception for women working on the global movement. The head of one of those groups offered a message that Lyric said she wished every American woman could hear:
“Today, it’s your country that’s having a challenge and feels like things are going backwards. Tomorrow, it might be ours. But we’re all sisters in the same struggle. We see you, we see your fight, and we’re here demanding your rights—because they’re linked to our own.”
That solidarity has already yielded tangible results. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the French government took the unprecedented step of codifying abortion rights into its constitution.
“They saw clearly what we hadn’t—that it’s possible to go backwards,” Lyric said. “And so there was a learning and a benefit for French women that came out of a loss and challenge for American women. Even from our losses, others learn.”
That kind of interconnected progress is the essence of feminist foreign policy: learning from one another, protecting each other’s gains, and recognizing that none of us are free until all of us are.
She also highlighted a landmark regional ruling: the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recently recognized a human right to care — encompassing both receiving and providing care, as well as the right to self-care.
In a moment when cynicism feels easier than conviction, the FFPC reminds us that hope itself is a strategy—and solidarity is a form of power.
“There’s a global ecosystem of progress happening,” Lyric said. “We’re part of it — even if we don’t always see it.”
Looking Ahead: The Politics of Hope
Despite the setbacks, Lyric and Spogmay’s work reminds us that feminist foreign policy is no longer theoretical. It’s a growing movement grounded in community, courage, and connection.
“This most recent review showed that the work is proliferating more broadly and faster than even we can keep up with it,” Lyric said. “We just wrote a 250-page report, and it’s already outpacing us.”
In a world still shaped by patriarchal norms, their work offers a new model of leadership — one rooted in collaboration, empathy, and inclusion.
“There is a global sisterhood that is cheering us on, learning from our mistakes, and advancing where we cannot,” Lyric reflected. “Hope isn’t naive — it’s strategy.”
And that may be the most powerful foreign policy of all.
Lessons from Setbacks
Of course, the work is far from easy. When I asked Spogmay about her biggest disappointment, she spoke about the tension between ambition and reality.
“We established a framework for feminist foreign policy built around five R’s—Rights, Representation, Reporting, Resources, and Reach,” she said. “Reach describes the comprehensiveness and coherence of the agenda. It’s the most important part—and the hardest to implement.”
Despite momentum, the pace of change is uneven.
“Some days, it feels like we’re not going fast enough, especially in areas like security, conflict, immigration, and trade.”
But for both Lyric and Spogmay, the frustration doesn’t cancel the hope. It fuels it.
Feminist foreign policy isn’t about incremental change—it’s about transforming the very architecture of decision-making. And transformation takes time.
A Politics of Inclusion
Feminist foreign policy is not just about women in diplomacy. It’s about redefining leadership—shifting from control to care, exclusion to inclusion, dominance to dignity.
At its core, feminist foreign policy is also not just a political framework—it’s a moral one. It demands that nations measure success not by dominance or GDP, but by dignity, equality, and care.
It’s a reminder that the most powerful foreign policy isn’t about conquering—it’s about connecting.
And in that connection lies our best hope for the future.
This is so inspiring — we are all sisters in the same struggle! There is a lot that Indian women and systems need to catch up to especially in terms of ensuring that their rights are protected constitutionally
It’s really inspiring to see how women around the world are standing up for their rights, and I especially appreciate how France decided to ensure women’s abortion rights by writing them into the constitution. It’s fairly common to see what starts in the United States show up in other countries too, so seeing France take proactive steps now while they still have the power to do so is empowering. We could take some notes here in the United States.