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Abstract
This dissertation analyzes the rise of a feminist foreign policy perspective at different levels of global governance. I argue that feminist foreign policy rhetorics represent a departure from established gender mainstreaming programs by making gender equality the primary consideration in the policy decision-making process. Because a feminist foreign policy perspective is relatively new, this dissertation takes advantage of the opportunity to study how relationships are renegotiated between actors in global governance as rhetorical norms are being shaped. This project exposes how actors in global governance developed rhetorical strategies aimed at shifting and transforming the relationships between stakeholders in the policy creation process in order to enable them to produce polices that are friendly to women and girls. To track how multiple actors act and react within the multi-layered political context of global governance, I employ a transnational feminist perspective and public address methods. My first case study analyzes three years of United Nations Security Council debates on the status of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. I find that the United Nations articulated a conservative feminist foreign policy perspective that prioritized incremental change that preserved the existing hierarchies between actors in global governance. My second case study analyzes the rhetoric of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrm. I find that she constructed a moderate feminist foreign policy perspective that prioritized cooperation and collaboration between actors in global governance. My final case study analyzes a conference of more than 130 womens rights activists organized by Women in Development Europe. I find that these feminist activists advanced a radical feminist foreign policy perspective that called for the disruption and transformation of the institutions and norms of global governance. Together these case studies reveal how actors in global governance developed a range of rhetorical strategies to articulate their role in crafting and implementing feminist foreign policies and in turn, shaped how a larger network of actors can relate to one another to better enable the passage of womens and girls rights policies.