Top News
Huffington Post: U.N. Women’s Michelle Bachelet: An Effective Advocate for the World’s Women
My latest on The Huffington Post – special thanks to Women’s Foreign Policy Group for hosting the recent lunch with Michelle Bachelet from UN Women. … Read entire article »
Recent Blogs
Q & A: Aida Daguda on Her Work in Bosnia Herzegovina
During my recent trip to Bosnia Herzegovina for the US Embassy, I interviewed my friend and colleague Aida Daguda, CEO of the Civil Society Promotion Centre (CPCD), a mentee in the FORTUNE 2009 mentoring program and an amazing leader. Aida created mentoRING 2012, a program that put together 115 mentoring pairs (all women), with 40 mentors coming from businesses, 24 from government and politics, 23 from NGOs, five from media. I talked to her about her work to build civil society and women’s leadership. Foster: I was so honored to be part of the dinner to celebrate mentoRING 2012 in Sarajevo. What were your goals for the program? In the spirit of this year’s topic for International … Read entire article »
Reflections on My Week in Bosnia Herzegovina
Simple statements don’t do justice to the complicated reality of politics and daily life in Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH). The press release sounds like many others but there is so much more to say: “The Office of Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy, as part of the Embassy’s ongoing efforts to promote equality and empowerment of women in BiH society, welcomes Ms. Stephenie Foster, an international expert on political participation and the role of women in policy advocacy, to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ms. Foster will lead a series of programs to help develop the leadership capacities of women in social and political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, visiting Sarajevo, Mostar and Banja Luka from April 24 … Read entire article »
Women’s Leadership Roles
I’m in Bosnia this week but on Wednesday I had the opportunity to take part in a discussion on women leaders. To view the video click here. “Two women’s rights advocates in the U.S., a Republican and a Democrat, spoke with a group in Tel Aviv about the importance of women taking on leadership roles and positions of power.” Guests:Ann Stone, President, The Stone Group, Inc. and Stephenie Foster, www.stepheniefoster.com … Read entire article »
Huffington Post: Review of The Lady & The Peacock
Here’s my latest on Huffington Post – review of a great biography of Aung San Suu Kyi. I highly recommend it. … Read entire article »
Talking Gender at the Kennedy School
On Saturday, April 14, I was privileged to moderate a panel at the 18th Annual International Development Conference at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. This student run conference was literally packed, with about 500 attendees filling every nook and cranny of the JFK School’s Rotunda. The daylong event kicked off with two provocative and fascinating speakers, Martin Wolfe from the Financial Times and Dani Rodrik from Harvard, who had sometimes an eye-opening conversation on globalization, its limits, and the importance of democratic institutions to development and growth. The panel I moderated was on Gender, Poverty & Development, and focused on the importance examining the different roles of men and women, boys and girls as we … Read entire article »
Groundbreaking Gender Policy at US Department of State
This past Monday, April 9, I attended a briefing on the State Department’s first ever gender policy. To my mind, this policy is another reason that Hillary Clinton will be leave an incredible mark on the U.S. diplomatic and development agenda. Global Ambassador for Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer was joined by Carla Koppell, the Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment at USAID and Caren Grown, Senior Gender Advisor at USAID. The exciting discussion focused on not just the State Department’s new gender policy but also the manner in which State and USAID are working together to ensure that gender is taken into account across all programs in our diplomatic and development efforts. To … Read entire article »
HUFFINGTON POST: Making A Difference in Women’s History Month
Heres my latest blog on Huffington five way tomake a difference in Womens History Month (and frankly, during any month)! … Read entire article »
Breaking the Mold & Breaking a Record
I just returned from an event honoring my former boss, the legendary Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), who on Saturday became the longest-serving woman in the US Congress. The room was packed, with scores of Washington power players – Leader Pelosi, Vice President Bidenand Secretary Albrightamong them. There is much to recite about Senator Mikulskis record as a trailblazer and her ground breaking service to her constituents. To me, however, the most remarkable thing about Senator Barb is that she still holds onto the values that brought her to public service patriotism, fairness, fighting for whats right and an implicit understanding that what is good for the average person is whats good for America. … Read entire article »
Taking the First Step: Being Courageous
Every March 8 International Womens Day is a bit of a blur. There are so many great events celebrating that day and, although I try, I cant get to all of them. I must say that I do wish two somewhat contradictory things that these events were stretched out over a longer period of time and that we wouldnt need to think about a womens day or month because the importance of women is so ingrained in all the work that we do. … Read entire article »