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Why Women Make Diplomacy More Effective

At a time when global affairs are increasingly defined by military capabilities, economic competition, and rapid technological change, diplomacy seems to be taking a backseat. On International Day of Women in Diplomacy, it is essential to reaffirm the importance of diplomacy as a tool for managing conflict, preventing escalation, and preserving peace. Equally important is recognizing that a key part of effective diplomacy is determined by who is in the room. Including women and diverse voices in diplomacy is crucial in order to prevent miscalculation and chart more durable pathways to peace. However, the conversation should not only revolve around how many women are represented at the negotiating table, but also what kind of diplomatic thinking is being cultivated. 

Reading an adversary well enough and identifying where a compromise might be possible can prevent a disagreement from turning into war. The case for diplomacy and the case for women in diplomacy both rest on the claim that diplomacy succeeds when states and conflict parties understand how their adversaries understand themselves. Today, despite the huge leap in technology, access to information, and interconnected social media platforms, major powers understand each other much less than they did decades ago. 

More diverse negotiating teams are better equipped at recognizing overlooked grievances and how different communities experience conflict. A broader mix of perspectives, including those brought by women, can expand the understanding of conflicts and help push for more workable solutions.

The Case for Diplomacy

History teaches us that skilled diplomacy is essential for preventing war and saving lives. Throughout the Cold War, the world was repeatedly very close to global conflict. The most notable example was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, widely regarded as the closest humanity has come to a nuclear war. As the crisis reached its peak, a series of diplomatic exchanges ended with an agreement that averted a catastrophic confrontation. The Cuban Missile Crisis was not resolved when either side abandoned their interests, but when they recognized how the other interpreted existential threats. That recognition is a core act of diplomacy. Technological sophistication and ample intelligence are insufficient for the resolution of conflicts; the capacity to see one’s own moves as the other sees them can be the difference between a negotiated settlement and devastating war. 

The Case for Women in Diplomacy

The importance of diplomatic skills is particularly evident in mediation and peace negotiations, where diplomacy is tested under the most difficult circumstances. Northern Ireland is such a case where women from the Protestant and Catholic communities formed the Women’s Coalition, which later became an official party and secured seats at the negotiating table. By working across identity divisions, representatives of the Women’s Coalition broadened the scope of the conversation beyond constitutional and security questions to include community issues that touch everyday life. The resulting Good Friday Agreement has sustained peace for nearly three decades. Women have also played a central role in peace negotiations in Colombia as gender advisers and negotiators. In Liberia, women contributed to an end of armed conflict by mobilizing mass action through marches, rallies, and sit-ins, holding the conflict parties accountable, and consolidating the peace through civic education campaigns. By bringing into the conversation the interests and needs of local communities, women’s perspectives helped negotiators understand the political and social forces that shape the behavior of adversaries. The result is a more comprehensive understanding of conflict dynamics. 

Moreover, women’s participation was found to have a significantly positive effect on the duration of peace across 182 peace agreements signed between 1989 and 2011. Including women makes a peace agreement 20 percent more likely to last at least two years, and the impact is greater in the long-term, where there is a 35 percent chance that an agreement will last for fifteen years. 

Women’s Exclusion from Negotiations

The gap between this evidence and current practice is significant. In 2022, women’s representation as negotiators in active peace processes stood at 16 percent, down from 23 percent in 2020. In 2022, there were 18 peace agreements achieved globally, yet only one of them had a woman signatory, and only one-third of the agreements reached that year included provisions related to the needs of women and girls. 

Despite persistent barriers, there have been several regional initiatives that harness women’s peacebuilding potential in the Global South, such as FemWise-Africa: the Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation. The Arab Women Mediators Network is a similar endeavor for Arab women to share their expertise in conflict resolution. While not sufficient, they are important steps that deserve to be supported and expanded. 

Global developments lend more credibility and significance to these regional networks. The recently signed MoU between the U.S. and Iran was the outcome of regional diplomacy with no major powers acting as guarantors and no involvement from the global multilateral system. This points to a changing mediation landscape facilitated by third-party players that are mostly middle powers. If peace processes are becoming more regional, network-based, and more dependent on relationship-building rather than great-power guarantees, then the skills often associated with successful women mediators—active listening, trust-building, coalition management, and community engagement—may become even more valuable. Efforts to advance women’s participation in peacemaking should focus not only on increasing representation within international organizations but also on strengthening women’s leadership within regional blocs, such as the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. 

The challenge is twofold: to increase the representation of women in peace processes, and to reaffirm the value of diplomacy itself. These goals should not be pursued separately. Having more women in peace talks is proven to make diplomacy more effective and lasting. The world needs diplomats—women and men—who have the strategic empathy to save the world from the horrors of war and stand as a barrier between  crisis and  catastrophe.

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