Building a foreign policy agenda with women at the center has shown that it can advance broader social, economic and political goals. It also requires having women in influential decision-making positions. Even as the U.S. has seen three female secretaries of state, a 2020 government report found the State Department has struggled to recruit and promote women compared to other government agencies over the past two decades.

On October 14th, Politico Magazine senior editor Usha Sahay hosted a joint conversation with Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the State Department’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, and Ambassador Bonnie Denise Jenkins, under secretary for arms control and international security. The conversation covered the roadblocks preventing more women from rising through the ranks of diplomacy and U.S. foreign policy and why closing the foreign policy gender gap matters.The two diplomatic leaders also discussed their experiences fighting for gender equality abroad and what they’ve learned about how the U.S. can best reach and protect women and girls around the world — an issue that gained broader attention after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left women in the country vulnerable to the Taliban takeover.