At the first official Women Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Canada provided a window for activists to shape ideas about what a feminist foreign policy should look like. Those present tell OpenCanada what they’ll be watching for from the ministers at the UN General Assembly and going forward.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Vietnam’s appointment of its first female president belies a deep gender imbalance in the communist country’s politics and society and will do little to improve women’s rights, advocates said on Monday.

Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh was named acting president on Sunday following the death of Tran Dai Quang, a former chief of internal security appointed to the presidency in 2016.

AS MEXICO’S NATIONAL congress assembled this past weekend, women occupied 47.8 percent of the seats in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and 49.2 percent of the seats in the Senate. The July elections that voted in the Congress also saw Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo win the election for Mexico City’s mayor, marking the first time a woman has won the vote to lead North America’s largest city.

Despite some gains, female politicians face an uphill battle in reaching the country’s 30% quota.

Women’s participation in Somali politics has traditionally been low, and a controversial topic in the country. Somali society typically ascribes to more conservative notions of a woman’s role in family and community life, rarely envisioning a position of political leadership in a male-dominated system. This has been changing, but there’s a long road ahead.