Women's Initiative

To create a world where all people and the planet are safe and free from nuclear threats, it’s imperative we harness the insight and experience the entire security ﬁeld has to offer by working toward greater inclusivity and representation.

Historically, the security sector has devalued the perspectives of women and other marginalized communities' populations. We need more women in the ﬁeld. And when women do make it into the room, we must keep their contributions and insights—which may challenge the status quo of a system that overvalues force and threats over diplomacy and cooperation—from being discounted or ignored all together. By inviting and positioning women ﬁrmly at the peace and security table, Ploughshares Fund aims to invest in, amplify, and expand the range of perspectives addressing our world’s greatest nuclear challenges—and, as a result, expand the variety of solutions and ideas available to us.

Dedicate a gift to the Women's Initiative today! Learn more.

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Latest News and Analysis on the Ploughshares Fund Women's Initiative

Never Give Up

In diplomacy, and in life, we always have to be prepared to accept our lack of control over circumstances. The world can and often will wreak havoc on our plans. Even these days, when I am often despairing and want to lean out, I keep working to make the world safer, less violent and more...

April 3, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
Gender and National Security

Our thinking about national security — and our national security policies themselves — are shaped and limited by ideas about gender. These ideas are deeply embedded in national security discourse, where they underlie core assumptions about what makes us more secure, and what counts as “rational...

April 3, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
A Feminist Nuclear Policy

I founded the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy because I kept seeing the same patterns in foreign policy: the exclusion of marginalized communities in policymaking, the pressure on women to bear the burden of peacekeeping and the insistence that gendered ideas (in particular those relying on...

April 3, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
Women in the Room Where It Happens

In one year, the world witnessed the prospect of a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula turn into awe-inspiring peacemaking by Korean leaders. Now, a historic opportunity to end the seven-decade Korean War is within reach. The majority of South Koreans want a peace agreement to end the Korean War...

April 3, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
A New Vision for Gender and National Security

Watch our April 3, 2019 conference featuring women leaders with practical steps for smart, effective national security strategy. The conference in part celebrated the launch of our new report, A New Vision: Gender. Justice. National Security. This report was produced in collaboration with...

March 8, 2019 - By Ploughshares Fund
Remembering Sally Lilienthal

At Ploughshares Fund, advocating for and celebrating women at the peace and security table is part of who we are as an organization. Our founder, Sally Lilienthal, started Ploughshares Fund in the 1980s as a bold way of facing up to Cold War fears.

March 8, 2019 - By Elizabeth Warner
Transforming Thinking, Advancing Policy

Ploughshares Fund believes everyone deserves the right to a safe and secure future. For more than 36 years we have been working to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons, to stop their spread and to reduce conflict in regions where nuclear weapons exist. From the brink of a new arms race, to...

January 30, 2019 - By Elizabeth Warner
Ploughshares Fund Announces New Women's Initiative

Ploughshares Fund announces the launch of its new Women’s Initiative as a vital part of its collective efforts to realize a world free of nuclear weapons and where all people are guaranteed the right to a safe and secure future. “It’s simple,” said Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund President, “...

October 15, 2018 - By Ploughshares Fund
Nuclear Diplomacy: An Interview with Jenny Town

Jenny Town is a Research Analyst at the Stimson Center and the Managing Editor and Producer of Ploughshares Fund grantee 38 North, a web journal that provides policy and technical analysis on North Korea. We recently asked her about denuclearization talks and the September meeting between South...

October 5, 2018 - By Will Lowry
Grantee Spotlight: Laicie Heeley

Ploughshares Fund is proud to sponsor the work of Laicie Heeley, a fellow at the Stimson Center’s Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense Program. Over the past year, Ploughshares Fund has supported Heeley in launching two flagship programs in the nuclear security field with the new podcast,...

March 23, 2018 - By Ploughshares Fund