Gender equality & women's empowerment

IFES believes that democracy is rooted in the equal and empowered inclusion of women, men and people of all gender identities in the governance of their countries. Based on international human rights standards, best practices and cutting-edge research, IFES promotes political participation, justice and equal rights for women and men around the world. We believe in integrating an intersectional feminist perspective across our democracy and elections assistance work, planning and measuring our programs in terms of the transformational impact they have on gendered power dynamics.

We work to support current and future women leaders, encourage and assist male champions of women’s rights, and address important barriers to women’s political participation, such as violence against women in politics both online and off, uneven access to electoral justice, and attachment to rigid gender norms that narrowly define the roles women can play in public life. IFES programming aims to achieve gender equality in the political and electoral process by:

• Mainstreaming gender equality in all aspects of our election and political processes programming and technical leadership; and
• Implementing targeted women’s empowerment initiatives to increase women’s political participation and decision making in political and electoral processes.

Explore our resources linked here to learn more and get involved.