 For everyone coming in welcome to our panel. Thank you so much for joining us today Just gonna wait a few more minutes Looks like we got a bunch of people joining very exciting. Hi everyone. Welcome to our women in the world panel We'll kick things off in about another minute or two Well, you wait for folks to join All right, so I think we are good to start So hello everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for our women in the world panel I'm Emily with RL and I'm a member of Tufts women in international relations This panel is co-hosted by the Tufts branch of women's higher education now and women in IR So first and foremost, we would like to extend a warm welcome to all of our panelists Agnieszka Foduczer Santos and a Larson Deborah Shildekrout and Hila Yoon. Thank you for being here to talk with us today And just a few housekeeping things the chat is disabled So please direct all your questions to the Q&A and we'll get to them at the end Also, please note that this webinar is being recorded in case you'd like to go back and reference it later We're going to start with a land recognition And then I'll introduce the moderators and we'll move into a moderated Q&A Followed by an audience Q&A at the conclusion of the panel Even though we are on Zoom, we'd like to recognize the indigenous sovereignty of the land on which we are based We acknowledge that the land that we at Tufts University are gathered on is home to the Massachusetts and Wampanoag people Thriving indigenous communities existed on this land before European settlers came and waged campaigns of genocide against them As part of this meeting we commit to going further than merely naming these injustices We encourage everyone gathered here to recognize the land you are on and the history associated with it We urge you all to support local indigenous agendas and work with indigenous peoples Centering their voices in the fight for just sustainable futures And with that we will now introduce our two moderators, Chelsea Wei and Brie McGon Chelsea is a first year studying international relations and cognitive and brain sciences She is a member of the awareness team for women's higher education now Tufts chapter Brie McGon is a junior studying international relations and economics and minoring in Arabic And she is a woman a member of women in international relations All right, Chelsea and Brie take it away all right, I guess we could start by Starting off with a basic introduction question. Please introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about what you do for a living We could start with Professor Schillkraut and then Ms. Felduchess and tells Ms. Yan and then Professor Larson Great. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me and welcome to everyone who's with us today So my name is Debbie Schillkraut. I'm a professor in the political science department I'm also currently the chair of the political science department My research focuses on politics in the united states particularly with respect to public opinion on issues related to identity race ethnicity and immigration I'm also a mother to two school-age kids who are going to school In the house where I am right now. So I apologize in advance if we have any guest visitors today Should I just go ahead Chelsea? Yeah, yeah, great. Okay. Hi. So my name is Agnieszka Faldutrasantas I'm the director of programs at the global network of women peace builders and the global network of women peace builders were a coalition more than 100 organizations women's rights organizations and women Let peace building organizations in about 50 countries most of them affected by conflict So a lot of our work focuses around Well around this un agenda that it's called women peace and security agenda But more practically around making sure that women are meaningfully represented they meaningfully participate in Peace processes that means both negotiations of you know Peace negotiations and the implementation of peace agreement and everything that happens after the peace agreement is signed as well as sort of more informal processes mediation and and building trust and social cohesion on the ground And yeah, that that has of course a lot of components, which I'll be happy to speak about later But thank you very much for having me and I look forward to the discussion Awesome missing Hi everyone. My name is Hila Yoon. I'm the founder of Afghan youth ambassadors for peace organization And I grew up in Afghanistan, but I'm currently based in the uk I'm doing my master's in international finance and trade And previously I work with Agnieszka the global network of women peace builders So she already told you what we do In the ngnwp, but in Afghanistan I work with young women and also with youth How to prevent violent extremism in Afghanistan and how to advocate for Women meaningful participation in the current peace process with the Taliban that is happening in Afghanistan Thank you Thanks, Hila. Hi everybody. My name is Anna Larsen and I am currently teaching in the political science department at Tufts I teach a couple of courses this semester in fragile states the politics of fragile states and also issues in democratization But my courses in the fall were perhaps more directly relevant to this Panel and those are on gender and international relations So I come from soas. I was teaching at soas in london the university of london before teaching over here And before that have been working in and on Afghanistan for about 15 years 2004 So i'm particularly excited to to see hila here Salam aleikum hila. It's really nice to see you and then and to hear what you have to say You know about your experiences in afghanistan Country that is very close to my heart and through my current research Which focuses on women in politics in afghanistan and also the peace process but also democratization And political parties in afghanistan A mixture of things But it's it's a great pleasure to be here. So thank you for having me Great. Thank you so much for introducing yourselves. We're so glad that you are all here Uh, I'll start off by asking professor shield the crowd. What is the role of gender in politics on the world stage? Yeah, so I saw that question and that is a huge question So I thought what might be helpful to answer in just two to three minutes is to Maybe summarize some of the things that are on my mind these days that relate to that question One of them is just watching the news today in the northeastern united states focusing on the governor of new york Andrew Cuomo is someone that people had mentioned is possibly being interested in running for president and it seems like now Chances are more likely that he's going to resign based on his treatment of women in the workplace And the way he used his power To to create workplaces that were hostile outright hostile to women the story is unfolding pretty rapidly But that's been dominating my attention today following this story Not just for you know, what it means for american politics what it means for discussions of women trying to achieve power and advance their careers in the way that has been That has been been thwarted women as as targets the power dynamics in the workplace that really You know prevent so many women to have opportunities for for leadership So um, so you know this this case in new york is just one example, but there are countless Countless of them on the one hand the fact that we have these discussions and that it that at times men are held accountable for it Is positive, but the fact that we keep having these discussions is is clearly an ongoing problem Lately I've also been thinking a lot about emerging research on the role of women as leaders during the covid pandemic and how There whether or not there's variation in states that have women governors cities that have women mayors countries that have women leaders and do they do do they um Whether the pandemic differently than than other countries and to what extent is the fact that they are women at the helm Related to that. I don't think we fully know the answer to that question But I think it's a really timely interesting research question that i'm paying attention to And then thinking about all the events of the past year And actually the whole through and through the whole trump presidency I'm thinking about women as leaders of movements about women leading the racial justice movement women's leadership in the environmental movement Women's leadership in movements against gun violence and for increased gun regulation Women leading these movements as women, but also women leading these movements in their role as mothers is something that's been really Important to me to to watch and and take stock of How much they've been able To to accomplish under exceptionally challenging circumstances. So those are the things that that i've been thinking a lot about Lately Thank you so much professor. So crow This one is for you. Ms. Felicia Santos as a woman in the cause and as the director of programs for Global network of woman peace builders Could you tell us a bit about it and some of the most recent initiatives that you have been working on? Sure, uh, yeah, so i'll maybe sketch out the general way that we that we work at gnwp and and maybe put in some examples to concordize that And the general way that we work that all of our sort of strategies are encapsulated in is um going You know, we say it's like a Global to local and local to global model. So I told you at the beginning that we work with united nations security council resolutions on women peace and security as you i'm sure know united nation security council is one of the sort of most Powerful bodies right within that global infrastructure within the sort of multilateral system of multilateral institutions So it was really really significant More than 20 years ago now when that body That has you know, historically before that only address Women women's leadership or even women's needs very tangentially and always from the perspective Of victims that it recognized that 20 years ago in that first resolution that women are actually have actually critical roles to to build in Sorry to play in building and sustaining peace Since then we've had nine more resolutions. We now have 10 and uh, this has become something that's much more accepted at the global stage, uh, although we are facing a backlash over the last, you know, few years as we see sort of across the spectrum of of Work for gender equality and women's rights. So too in that area of women specifically in peace and security Which by the way goes hand in hand with a backlash against the broader Multilateralism and the crisis that multilateral institutions are finding themselves in so just adding to what Um Professor shieldcourt said just now I think that's an interesting question too of looking at sort of how Multilateral institutions have supported and feminists and feminist movements have been able to leverage them to advance some of these agendas And and the adoption of the resolution 1325 is is fruit of such leveraging of those multilateral institutions And how now the backlash against, you know, uh against feminists against gender rise this sort of outright right wing rise of of those movements has, you know The the the backlash against feminism has sort of provided a fertile ground to also Or a common ground for a lot of these movements and and and has therefore bolstered sort of the most Yeah, anti multilateralism nationalistic narratives But going back to your question So what we do is that bringing these resolutions because it's very significant that they were passed and they are there It's very significant at the global level and it's significant because they actually came From grassroots organizing and from women activists It was women civil society who drafted the first draft of that resolution 1325 who advocated for it since Beijing since the Hague conference In 1999 So it has been, you know, a long time coming really from the women's movement to the security council And what we want to ensure is that that is then transferred You know, actually implemented in those communities where these women work on a daily basis So what we do for that is one of our flagship initiatives. I'll tell you about two One of them is called localization of women peace and security and that's really where we work with local authorities. So whether it's governors or mayors or You know council or local council members or traditional leaders or religious leaders in countries where they play significant role and have significant decision making Impact over decision making and bring them together with local women Women activists women peace builders women teachers women from the community To first analyze together these international laws that you know, don't don't immediately Resonate very strongly in local communities right to analyze them analyze their contacts and their needs and see how that matches up And we then support a policy development process where in these actors both the sort of decision makers the authorities whether they're male or female and the um for gender non-conforming and the And the you know, women and other actors from the community Develop either a local action plan for the implementation of these policies in a way that makes sense Given the local reality or they integrate they they design provisions to integrate them to um existing local policies and the second flagship program like I said is one that We are also initiating in Afghanistan with hila and terror organization Afghan women's welfare and development Association which is young women leaders for peace and that's why we work with young women Usually young women who already know how to read and write that that shouldn't be a privilege but in some context it is and we train them we have like a Comprehensive training module it usually takes place as a series of what we call trainings of trainers And it's adapted to every context because not every context has the same needs But the broad components are you know leadership Peacebuilding but then also literacy and like I said, they are not learning to read and write they're learning how to teach others and for example in Bangladesh and Cox's bazaar the Bangladeshi young women are now teaching Rohingya refugee women who don't have access often to sort of gender responsive and age appropriate education Right education is there only for small children in the camps The Bangladeshi women are Teaching the refugee women how to read and write which really makes a huge difference in terms of them being able to find distribution points for food for aid Being able to read documents and sign documents even just sign their name even if it's very basic skill So, uh, yeah literacy and then the use of communications So whether it's again community radios or theaters kids or social media depending on the context and what Is the most useful and the young women the program is now active in I think nearly 10 countries And we're going to reach and exceed 10 this year And in all of these countries we are in contact with these young women and after this series of trainings They sort of like take it away They design their own initiatives and we provide both technical and financial support for them to be able to or to implement Their own initiatives, whether it's a series of peace dialogues in their communities Whether it's a social media campaign, whether it's a series of literacy classes, whether it's a series of you know Community radio broadcasts, etc So so these are two things that we do and I'll just say one more sentence because I know I'm being very liberal with my time allocation That the other crucial part is then the local to global so, you know through research and then evidence-based advocacy And through creating spaces for our partners women from around the world to Directly speak to policy makers We want to make sure that it's not just us bringing these global policies to the women, but they that our partners from All across the world have opportunities to also feed into new policies that are being developed new strategies Action plans, etc as well as resolutions at the UN level. So there are the two directions and I'll stop here. Thank you Thank you so much. That was a really thoughtful response So miss you and we want to know what pushbacks have you experienced as the CEO of the afghan welfare and development association And how have you addressed these challenges? Thank you. Uh, when we started this organization, our whole focus was to focus on grassroot level Young women peace builders at the local level not just the capital So when we started working in the local areas, one of the we have I will just categorize the pushbacks that we face so far and what what we have done to address these challenges I think one of the biggest challenge or the pushback that we have faced And this is the current problem also of a lot of young female activists in afghanistan is security A lot of young women in afghanistan don't have security and currently there have been so many assassination and target killing going on in afghanistan And so many young women are have been have been killed I'm from province called lingahara and recently just in last week Four young women activists have been killed and and have been killed by unknown gunmen So this is one of the problems that a lot of young women Especially if they're working at the local level and addressing very sensitive issues Faces and that's the same thing that we have faced The second issue that pushback that we have faced is lack of funding a lot of grassroot level civil society organizations Especially if they are led by young women in afghanistan We don't receive that much support and that much funding opportunities that other organization which have a long history of Funds that they have received and they're and mostly which are based on in the capital They're the one who receive a lot of funding But our organization or organizations like us which work mainly at the grassroot level at the local level We don't receive those much funding and without funding a lot of our activities cannot be implemented Effectively at the local level because it needs a lot of resources and it needs a lot of funding opportunities as well The third pushback that we Often faces the lack of political will both from the government side and also from the local community and local government Institute and international communities as well. We have so many Good laws in afghanistan related to women. The problem is it's never implemented and it's never localized Women living in the capital. They know what their law is. They have some privileges But when you go to these local areas in afghanistan when you see these Local young women what they have been facing We see that there is no law the government do not have the capacity or not willing to implement those Law related to women in these at local level and we have a lot of international Resolutions such as like UNSCR 1325 or 2250 which mainly focus on youth The woman peace and security agenda and what YPS agenda But in afghanistan a lot of Many local women many young activists don't even know what these resolutions are Which are very important for them if they want to participate in all decision making processes in afghanistan But also around the world. So this is one of the thing lack of political will from the government side and from the international Communities is also one of the biggest pushback for young activists such as like us that are active in afghanistan These are the problems that we face in afghanistan many time But how we address is that we still put our efforts most of our work is voluntary based a lot of young women from the local Areas in afghanistan they actually volunteer to work with us and sometimes even though we don't have the funding for them to support them We still try to amplify their voices at the local level national level and international level but we how But also we receive support from organization such as like gnwp just like agneshka said that they have been supporting young women Organization at the local level and that's how we receive a lot of our supports from such organization And previously I did work with gnwp as the kora wise peace building fellow and all of this experience that I have learned While working in new york while working with gnwp is how we can amplify the voices of young women peace builder at the local level And this is the experience that I have taken from the new york and now that i'm working in afghanistan And i'm implementing that knowledge that I have and i'm trying to find ways To how can we amplify the voices of young peace builders, especially young women in afghanistan and how we can Paved way for them to participate in all decision making processes in afghanistan It's a very it's very difficult because if you want to bring social change in such countries It takes a lot of time and our whole agenda is and our whole goal is if we want to build sustainable peace If we want to bring sustainable peace in countries such as afghanistan It's by empowering young women at the local level. We need to build peace at the local level. We need to Make agents of change at the local level and that's how we can bring a sustainable peace In afghanistan and certain countries like others as well So so that's all I want to say Right now, but I can talk about our organization in further details as well later on Thank you, misty So the next question is for both professor larson and misty As both of you have had experiences in working in afghanistan, especially misty What has been the most significant advancements in women's peace building efforts in afghanistan? Missing do you want to start us off first? Um, I think one of the biggest significance that we have seen so far if we look at the current peace process Although we see that a lot of young women are still not visible at the negotiation team But we still have strong woman negotiator Which which receives support from a lot of international community and even member states and from different organization and from different women movements and this is one of the biggest achievement that we have Seen so far in afghanistan that right now we are currently in the current peace process for the taliban And a lot of women in afghanistan are not backing up. They're not sacrificing themselves anymore They what they have achieved so far and in the last 20 years They're still fighting for that and they're not giving up and this is something that we need to support because if we don't we don't We will not have that sustainable peace in afghanistan Or in other country or countries like this So this is one of the I think In my point of view one of the biggest achievement and significance that we have seen in afghanistan so far But there are other achievement that we have seen in other sectors and other industries in afghanistan If we look at the police academy or the the police force in afghanistan We see higher rate and higher percentage of women going to Joining the police forces and it was not possible like 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. We see higher Rate a young woman going to schools still with current with the covet 19 pandemic A lot of young women have been impacted by the covet 19 But still young women are now joining joining and pursuing higher education in afghanistan And women we can see the political participation of young women in the political processes and in political sectors as well recently and it was not Visible in the last 20 or 30 years and I think women presence in these key political Positions, I think this is one of the significance that that we have achieved so far in afghanistan Thank you so much for the opportunity to contribute to this discussion I absolutely defer to hila and her Superior knowledge and experience obviously on this this subject But just a few contributions as well drawing from afghan women and men that I've talked to over the years Which essentially echo exactly what hila is saying This this focus on the local level is so important and so often overlooked And I think having had the privilege to speak to people for example in hara province and west in afghanistan Women running peace building initiatives through a midwifery program You know through through programs that already exist where women have access into homes at the local level And then can talk to families can talk to people about what their sons are doing and you know how to influence The young boys particularly in there in their communities. So some really innovative initiatives um that are being put forward by extremely brave and extremely courageous people at the local level So I think hila is absolutely right to the highlight that as something so important and significant Just to contrast that with the the national level As hila mentioned, you have four women who are on the negotiating team with the taliban now out of a total 21 and those four women are You know, they are passionately devoted to promoting women's rights at this national and international level three of them are Very famous in their own right In terms of their backgrounds, you know related to the king and former king and You know, have these big political connections, but one I'd like to highlight. Um, syreefa zomati is a local woman from uh, hila's not unique. She's from um from wadak province of pakhtiyat. She was an mp for pakhtiyat province wadak area of afghanistan and I interviewed her a few times for my book a while ago when she was an mp And she talked very much about her emphasis on service provision and how she had this local connection with her community and She thought that the reason that she'd been voted into office was because of that commitment to Bringing central resources back to her community, which was echoed Also as a as a kind of general practice from mps in other places too But she developed this reputation for caring for her community and for providing for her community And her political career has just you know, accelerated since then But I was really pleased to see that she had um achieved this position of prominence and influence on the peace council because of that local connection that she has and because she's a bit different to the sort of more standard um stories of Women already in positions of authority, you know gaining those those positions one other thing I'd just like to mention and that is just that women in afghanistan have had so many Adverse conditions to overcome over the years and in 2003 It was women who were standing up in the constitutional lawyer jerger tent Telling the world that warlords should not be there And it was women who were standing up then at that time because they had been the ones who were organizing underground schools under the taliban and mobilizing at that point under the taliban and then before that under the mujahedin era too Which was just as conservative in many ways and just as damaging for women But the internationals weren't so interested in helping out at that point So I do believe there is a real history of women's activism and involvement that stems Back many years that shouldn't be forgotten in this focus on the international period of assistance between 2001 and 2020 Thank you both Next we have a question for professor shoulder kraut Has there been an impact on gender discourse following kamala harris's vice president presidential with So I think it may be a little too soon to answer this question I guarantee you that people are going to be researching that and and and what impact it may have on on how people feel about Future candidates for for the presidency and the vice president I will say that there is Some research on the role of women candidates has role models for girls and this research seems to suggest that as you Would expect it really is important and that girls are more likely to see that there's a place for them in politics If they see women running for office So not just at the level of vice president But you know running for local government serving in local office in the state house seeing women in positions of power In electoral politics matters for girls and thinking that this is something That they may that they might want to do someday and in the type of imagery that comes to mind when you ask them You know, what do you think of when you see a think of a president and what do you think of when you Think of a politician There's some new research coming out where a group of scholars went into elementary schools and asked kids to draw these pictures And they you know analyze them and and as girls got older They became more likely to think that it was men Who would run for office that the kind of idea that this is for me is something that that goes away as girls get older But that it can be Help really helpful for seeing women in office I think the fact that we you know, haven't really been talking that much about The fact that we have a woman vice president could be interpreted as a good thing. It's just maybe not a big deal I think part of that is That maybe for many americans It's just seems normal now after having someone like hillary clinton achieve as much as she did in her in her run for the presidency That that it just may Seamless groundbreaking to some people because it's just has this feeling of inevitability perhaps I think part of it what the reason why it's hard to know for sure is also because of the contrast with the previous Administration where there was a new story and a new scandal every day And it was so hard to keep up with it that our current administration Is just so under the radar in how they're doing stuff. So That conch and and I think part of that probably would have happened anyway with the abide administration But part of it I think is a concerted effort to have a contrast with the previous administration And so this under the radarness Mutes a lot of things including our discussions of hey, we have the first female vice president It's just we're just not talking about them very much Which again could be interpreted as as a good thing I will say though I was struck by a few days ago the biden The biden administration tweeted out a picture with Some generals that biden is nominating for to be four star generals and kamala harris was in the picture Um, you all should google it and look it up in the picture So there's a picture and then the the tweet that went along with it said I want every child to know that this is what vice presidents and generals in the united states armed forces look like Uh, and you know, that's messaging that is new and we can only imagine that it will matter It'll take a while till we have empirical studies that can actually document this fact But just the fact that it's being said is is noteworthy And what also drew my attention to that tweet is is when he he wrote Not I want every girl to know but I want every child to know that this is what vice presidents and generals look like Because while it's important for girls to see women leaders, it's important for boys to see women leaders And to talk with boys about it too So so I was really struck by um By the wording in that tweet and and this question also made me think of when when elizabeth waran was in the primaries And one important thing she made sure to do is when she was you know She was famous for her long selfie lines and giving everybody who was in attendance a chance to get a picture with her And to talk with her and that whenever and whenever somebody came up with a young girl She got down at eye level with the child and said i'm running for president because this is what girls do And so I think the the question that you pose to me is is it's important You know, I don't want to undersell that we have a woman vice president But it's important that there are lots of women doing these things and having these conversations and and really I think the impact is on will be on the youngest generation who for them. This is normal to see women doing Women doing these things Thank you for your insight professor so the crowd now we're moving on to The general questions that we have that we provided for all of you So feel free to unmute yourself if you want to add your input to that but the first question is What are some of the major barriers faced by women around the world in terms of access to politics and education? I mean, I yeah, I can go first if there's Uh, no takers and uh, yeah, that's a huge question and unfortunately There are still so so many barriers and healer spoke about some of them already, right because she talked about uh, the um, she talked about the the threats Right the attacks that women and girls face on a daily basis and that you know applies to Um, girls not going to schools and when there is armed conflict, uh, you know families are or Yeah, are more likely to sort of stop sending their girls to schools before they stop sending their boys to schools right and there is a myriad of reasons for that and it might be linked to Uh, you know prioritizing resources. Unfortunately when you have limited resources again in many societies and Most likely my my own country problem included, you know, you'll you'll sort of prioritize investing in your sons getting education first But also the security, right? So there is this but an important aspect Uh in terms of access to politics and something that has been on the rise is the attacks on women politicians women activists women who are active in the public sphere in 2019, um, I believe, um Athlete which is the the database of various violent events for the first time did that sort of uh, you know Accounting I guess of the number of political violence incidents against women and uh, so and and so they compared that to to the data that that so they compared data from from a couple of years prior as well and uh Noted that it's on the rise and in 2019 It was in fact the peak right it was the highest level of political violence and it's women ever recorded And I haven't seen the data for 2020 yet But we already know From the accounts that it has been increasing We know that in colombia it has been increasing from our partners We know that and it has been increasing So I wouldn't you know, I would very much expect that the trend is still going up and uh, you know In the democratic republic of the conga our partners have been monitoring voting stations during the elections in 2018 And what they noted is that Uh, there were attacks at voting stations, right? And they might be verbal harassment or they might be you know physical harassment of people being uh, You know who did that or or beat an app etc And the majority of those assaulted at voting stations were women Right, whether it's a verbal assault or physical assault So that's another barrier for women to participate politically even as voters So the the violence against women and politically motivated violence against women is a serious barrier and and of course, you know, the A lot of it also just takes The form of of murders, right of women activists when peace builders and human rights defenders around the world So, uh, that's one and the second one which I'll just mention I won't talk about to give others a chance to speak, but it is the funding And when we speak to women political candidates, we've worked with women Political candidates in several countries They tell us, you know, we don't need another training on public speaking. We're good. We're excellent public speakers Right, but like everyone comes in and they're like well training on public speaker What we need is money Because we need like it costs money to run a campaign We need access to the media And you often have to pay for the access to the media We need, you know platforms to be able to use these public Speaking skills that we we have heard so well so The funding barriers and that means, you know, of course that the the costliness of columbian sorry off Political races and I said columbian because we have a very close partner and friend from columbia who's an excellent You know woman human right defender and activist and peace builder and who ran for for an office in her local area But she just couldn't afford to keep the campaign going so so both That aspect of funding but then like a funding for women run organizations, you know that could Sort of support the civic education support at the various stages support help break down some of these barriers on the way there That's a chronic chronic issue too and we see so many of our partners struggling with it So I'd say these are two big ones Maybe I can just follow up on that point because I have a sort of similar complementary Observation to make and that is not so much about the physical violence, but about the Structural violence that prevents women from taking part in politics in Afghanistan And I'll speak specifically to Afghanistan Because that's sort of where my research focus is But I was privileged to take part in a research project for the afghanistan research and evaluation unit and un women last year And the focus was on women's political participation and you know what Was enabling it and what would be sort of ways to bolster it potentially in light of a talban sort of a power sharing arrangement and what we found was actually that um People talk women talk specifically about reputation As a real barrier Because if you put yourself forward as a political candidate You subject yourself to public scrutiny, but also to the slurs of political slurs From other rival candidates, not least other women in fact who you know will go to measures to derail your campaign as a as a political candidate and it's so easy to do that when As a woman your honor your reputation is tied up in sort of the public face that you put forward and any kind of slur to do is sort of whether you're In a public place with a man you're not related to or you know anything like that very small small thing can Be uh a to destroy a political career, but also Not much much more importantly than that really can have a huge impact on as an individual your likelihood of getting married in the future And also on your family and your family's social status And so there are huge barriers to putting yourself out there politically And risking that because of this potentially long term effect Not only on your on yourself as an individual but on on your family as well And I I feel that that is really overlooked. I think it's very important to focus on the physical threats and the bombings and the You know the targeted attacks on women But also on you know this this real barrier, which is the social one essentially and one that takes Very very strong committed Family husband father support to overcome So one of our findings from the research was if you want to support women in their political careers in Afghanistan the political participation You need to to look at their families as well You know, you need to support them as part of a community rather than as individuals Great. I can move on to the next question. This is another question for everyone What has been your experience as a as women in international relations or political science given that these are traditionally male dominated fields So I can speak briefly I've actually been really fortunate in my experience in political science to have always had really supportive mentors and My research is in an area that I think has been generally very welcoming to women scholars I know stories from lots of other women in political science and in international relations in particular Who study things like international security? Who study political violence and are told in not so many words or in so many words What's a nice girl like you doing studying bombs and war? Shouldn't you be studying something else that actually has never really happened to me? But being in academia I have experienced some things that I imagine are not unique to academia But I just want to put this out there because chances are people who are joining us today may experience some version of this Which is as you are younger and earlier in your career to maybe be warned about other women who are more senior to you So this has happened to me on many occasions where I'll be put on a committee or I'm going in an environment where The chair of a committee or something is this more senior woman in the field And other people come to me. Oh, you have to work with her. She's difficult Be careful around her And in my experience Pretty much 100 of the time that woman that I'm warned about turns out to be wonderful and incredible And I have learned over the years when someone warns me about another woman to think I want to get to know her and I want to learn her ways because She doesn't take anything from anybody She usually has high standards She usually knows how to speak her mind and get things done and I want to be more like her So I um, that's been a very common experience in the workplace actually So, uh, and I imagine again that it's not unique to To academia. So if you do ever hear this about women, um, that you have to work with who are more senior Consider it as a beacon To go towards the light rather than running away That's miss you Um, I wanted to answer this question because before I started my own civil society organization I used to work with the ministry of foreign affairs and afghanistan I worked there for one year one year and what I have noticed a lot that we don't have many female diplomats Abroad as well. And this is one of the challenges that afghan women actually face We don't see much representative at a presentation of female In international politics as well. We do have female Ambassadors like in the un and in other countries but only like three or four and the rest of the countries The ambassadors are always male And also when I was working in the ministry I see that a lot of opportunities were given to males junior diplomats But not so many for female junior diplomats who newly joined the foreign services And actually one of the obstacle was the lack of government funding and opportunities for such Junior diplomats as well, but also a lot of female diplomats even those girls who newly joined the foreign services They were also afraid to travel alone to other countries and actually Increase their public speaking skill as well. So this is the related to barriers that ana Already mentioned that why a lot of women, especially in afghanistan don't pursue political career in afghanistan But there are other barriers as well To this even when I was working with the ministry We had a lot of we had many departments and most of the time And only one of the department had a female head and on many other departments Which is very strategic which was related to economic trick with regional traits with other Countries, whether it was un or whether it was very a key important department Most of the time the head was a male not female So this is the problem that a lot of young and a lot of women faced in international politics and at the international level Uh, and this is that I'm speaking just from experience from afghanistan and I'm sure but in other countries we see positive Presentation of young women and men and women At international politics but not so much in countries like afghanistan and less developed countries Just a quick one on this one. I mean, I find myself in rooms full of men quite often In terms of, um, I don't know meetings about afghanistan just because it's usually these meetings Whether it's, you know, the foreign income wealth office In the uk or, you know, the sort of big, um strategic Ministry level meetings are Usually security focused. So it's normally about some security funding. So in those sectors, it's normally quite a lot of A lot of men, but I haven't normally had any problems. They've been very it like like Professor shield kraut said you know, it's it's not been too Too much of a problem But I guess one thing I would say is just it seems Just interesting how, um I get referred to in professional context as Ms rather than doctor You know quite a lot and it's just Like I don't see men of the same sort of career level having that issue And it's quite funny even on one occasion when a civil servant was Introducing me to Boris Johnson at a reception one time and I had to correct him He wasn't the prime minister at that point, but still It just you know, there are there are times when you really have to fight for Things that should be just normal like I worked the same amount of time for my phd is you know Any male colleague at, you know, the same university and yet It seems like there's a reluctance to use that Title sometimes but and it's not that I want to use like it's not I'm bothered by you know not using it It's just that comparison seems a little Stark sometimes and maybe very a quick a very quick note building on On the the point about sort of the security rooms being full of Men which is of course true, but it's interesting. So what I was going to say Well, we see a lot of a lot in our work and you know, my work is sort of explicitly linked to You know gender equality women's participation court and court women's issues, right and what we tend to see it's it's it's either one or the other so on on the one hand Women tend to be very much sort of like siloed or relegated if they're in the government or in the ministry of social policy and family and Health maybe but not in the ministry of finance like not in the ministry of defense those quote unquote in hard issues are seen as the male male issues and and that's why I just wanted to mention how significant that is and how Interesting to watch that the appointment appointment of Ngozi Akonja Iwala as the head of world trade organization As the first woman and the first African to head the organization So let's keep fingers crossed for that but there is that siloization But it also happens the other way around often if we organize an event and we say it's about women's insecurity And we invite a governor right who is a man, of course Then they will send their you know female employee, which is we want that woman there We want many women there, but we also want men there We want men to care about these issues, but it does very much seem like the public life The politics is divided up. There's there are the women's issues and women are You know relegated and limited only to those and then the men don't tend to care about those as much So, yeah, that's that's that's just an unfortunate dynamic Oh, and I just want to say and that also goes for young women And that's something we see instead of our work with International organizations when we get you know asked to recommend people for panels and and I'm always very adamant about saying The young women we work with they don't only have to be speakers on panels about youth They have expertise on things that are not their identity, right? Women have expertise on things that are not our identity. We you know, we have thematic expertise. So yeah Thank you all for the responses now. We are going on to the last question For the past 30 minutes. We've been talking about the past very often But this question we're asking you what changes would you like to see for women involved in international politics in the future? So I could go first and just be super brief and say one thing we're advocating for is all peace processes Should have meaningful participation of women and the definition of meaningful is of course a whole other Can of forms that I won't open it since I said I'll be brief But it should no longer be Acceptable to have a peace negotiation where women are not on the at the table And I'm saying at the table. I think it's it doesn't cut it to have you know Just an advisory board women board women have to be part of the actual negotiating teams And we're we're calling on the UN to make it a requirement for all peace processes that they support I can go next briefly my my research is in the area of international politics, but But I think that what I'll say applies probably as well but um And this this builds off the point that was made earlier about women being relegated to some issues and and men being relegated to to other issues but is is recognizing and having policies that support families And particularly thinking about everything that has happened during the past year during the pandemic and the the disproportionate challenges that women as caregivers has have faced and and finding ways to support caregiving Which is a women's issue, but need not be a women's issue Over time, but and having having the interest and dedication to to supporting Supporting families not just so that families have the support that they need But that also then creates opportunities for women to do all of the things that they want to do in international politics miss you I just want to briefly address this question Is that most of the time when we talk about international politics and women role in international politics Women are often seen as victims and a lot of time when these international politics happen, whether this is related to Security issues They say that women are not involved in the war So we there's no need for them to actually be involved in the peace processes at the international level or the peace agreement Or the peace agreement implementation So that's one of the important factor that we should consider that women are not victims They're actually agents of change in their own community and they have been Building peace in their communities and in different forms at the different levels. So I think seeing women as victim is one of the biggest Barrier that we are still facing and I think addressing this issue and seeing women and recognizing their important role in international politics Can be very vital and once these women are actually recognized for their work that they have done We can see a lot of positive changes because most of the time local women or women at the national level They usually see women who are working at the international level I've seen when kamala harris actually became the west president and it had a huge impact on afghanistan and everyone was so happy Okay, you know in the u.s. They actually saw first Female west president and they were also happy They actually kind of gained hope that okay if they're going to do something like that If this this thing happened in the u.s. After so many years after so many decades This might be possible in afghanistan or countries like afghanistan as well So strong representations of women at the international level in such key positions are very important And I think addressing this and that women can gain can get this position By their own hard work. It's very important So that's what I wanted to address At this at this moment If I can just draw maybe on hila's point and also professor schildkraut's point as well just on these issues of Women not being victims and also this family issues not being solely women's issues Just just thinking about feminism and how we can Make changes in our approach to men potentially to Make sure that our approach is a holistic one And one that impacts men as well that helps men to change their perceptions of what women's issues are And tries to maybe lessen the sort of the conflictual men versus women approach And actually sort of look at us at how as how we interact with one another What our gender relations mean, you know in terms of power in terms of influence in terms of how we get on You know as families and as as communities And I think it's really important and it might be a little controversial But I really do think that that should be the direction that we're heading in Less conflictual hitting all men against all women, which emphasizes the victim status of women Do a more complicated intersectional understanding of gender and One of our different roles in different places within you know our Our society All right. Thank you everyone for your perspectives and all the insights that you've given us So we only have one question in the audience q&a So we'll just ask you guys that and then wrap it up to respect everyone's time But do you have any last advice for women or gender minorities looking to pursue a career in ir or political science? So I can go first. Um, you know, I think It's it's easy for me to say get a mentor So it's easy to say but I do think mentorship is really important I know for sure I would not be here today If there wasn't somebody who took it upon himself to mentor me and suggest that this is a career that I should consider And to open that door for me I was in a situation where this mentor sought me out as a student in class who said I think this may be a career for you. Let's talk about it. And then that person continued to support me Uh, it's it can be hard to find a mentor But having that on your radar is a good first step to then, you know in your classes In internships that you have keep an eye out for people who seem supportive people who there's a phrase Um that I think is helpful for thinking about this is a phrase called lift as you climb So if somebody is advancing in their world, do they bring other people with them? And you can approach people and you know, it doesn't have to be this awkward Will you be my mentor kind of thing but but ask them for advice or learn about their story How did you, you know, invite people for coffee? It's it can be a little awkward to take that first step But people, you know, may not be know that you're interested in that kind of guidance Some people may not be comfortable offering unsolicited advice to you So they may not know to approach you as as somebody that they have resources that can help you And guide you and let you know. Oh, I've been there. I've I've experienced what you're experiencing And this is how I took the path I took Um, if those opportunities don't seem immediate to you You can make those opportunities by looking out for people who seem supportive generous with their time Um, and simply just ask them questions about themselves and about their careers and and take it from there Maybe a complete different advice, I guess from a different side, but it's just um the work for you know in The international relations world, I guess arena and especially for women because of the barriers We face but also because it's so intensely personal for many women who work in this It can be very very emotionally heavy. And so do not underappreciate. I guess that emotional labor that goes into it It's not entirely fair that it's there, but it's there. So I guess take care Of yourself take time to take care of yourself and of others And if you're ever in charge of creating a space where others have to be working and get very that in mind too Because there's so much burnout and so many Yeah, so so much, uh, like I said emotional burden, uh in that in that sphere and and women do very Disproportionately as in many other aspects of of life All right, awesome. Thank you all And we'd like to thank all our speakers one last time. Thank you so much for everything that you've added to our discussion And thank you all attendees for coming and The Tufts Institute for Global Leadership is working on uploading the recording of this webinar to their youtube channel If anyone wants to share it around or reference it later So yeah, thank you everyone for being here with us today It was amazing meeting all of you panelists and getting to talk to you And we totally appreciate all the work that you're doing. It's so important and meaningful And so inspirational for everyone in our clubs and everybody who was able to come today. So thank you Thank you so much for organizing. It was a great discussion. Thank you everyone Thank you. Thank you very much Thank you