Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is one one of only a tiny number of women on the foreign policy circuit. To global outsiders, it might be a surprise to learn she’s actually the only woman among 19 ministers on the Abbott government front bench.
Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, just 20 have a female foreign minister, just over 10%. Australia, Italy and India are the only three G20 countries with a woman serving as foreign minister.
This is hardly representative of the suffering and trauma inflicted on women in global conflicts and humanitarian disasters around the world. Indeed, one wonders how global priorities might shift it more women were giving their voice to strategic measures being taken in hotspots around the world.
Would, for instance, a significant global response to the most dangerous Ebola outbreak in history have come sooner if more women were being heard? Yesterday, the United States committed to sending 3000 military personnel to West Africa, and establishing a joint force headquarters in Liberia to help with relief efforts and train healthcare providers. Australia soon followed by promising a total of $7 million to organisations fighting the outbreak. An amount that looks pretty pathetic when compared to what we committed to fighting the Islamic State just days earlier, and one which the Australian Medical Association says is inadequate.
Would the plight of 270 school girls in Nigeria kidnapped five months ago by Boko Haram, a group that in many ways is as brutal and inhumane as ISIS, still be firmly on the global agenda and at the forefront of mainstream media attention if more women had a say on foreign policy? Seemingly, a social media campaign wasn’t enough to free these girls, regardless of how many times the #bringbackourgirls hashtag was retweeted. Boko Haram either wasn’t following Michelle Obama on Twitter, or didn’t care much for viral rhetoric. Although a number of girls escaped in the week after the mass abduction, not one has been rescued since. The US has actually scaled back its rescue operation in the region.
Perhaps, with more women at the table, we’d discuss the disturbing campaign of rape, violence and oppression of women in the Islamic State, rather than focusing a response on the brutal — all be them just as disgusting — public executions of a small number of western citizens. The UN estimates more than 1500 women and children have been forced in slavery in the region in recent weeks.
Armed forces are currently being mobilised across the world off decisions being predominantly made by small groups of powerful men and their alliances.
Perhaps the health and safety of women would become of greater focus and consideration when determining what do next if, one day — eventually — women are given a more equal say at the table.