To mark International Women's Day in 2015, the Lowy Institute is hosting a special 'Women in Foreign Policy' panel on Thursday. An all-female panel (journalist Lauren Williams, Elaine Pearson from Human Rights Watch, Jenny Hayward-Jones from the Lowy Institute and the ABC's Geraldine Doogue) will discuss the challenges faced by women in Melanesia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, as well as their personal experiences pursuing careers that research, report and advocate gender issues in foreign policy. The event is fully subscribed, I'm afraid, but a video and podcast will be available soon after.
From the perspective of The Interpreter, this seems an apt moment to renew our effort to increase the number of female contributors to the site. I say 'renew' because over the last few years we have reached out individually to women in international relations and encouraged them to write for the site. On this occasion, we want to do it publicly too, because although our efforts thus far have produced improvement, we'd like to do more.
So to all the women reading The Interpreter who are involved in international policy and have something to say, please pitch me your ideas at sroggeveen@lowyinstitute.org.
If you're a regular reader, you will know that The Interpreter covers all manner of topics within the broad rubric of 'international policy', so you may want to write on diplomacy, economics, strategic issues, foreign aid, or a particular country or region. Then again, you may think The Interpreter has neglected a particular topic. If so, just make your case in an email. We generally post articles of no more than 800 words. A piece can be built around a news 'hook', it can have a strong point of view that engages with something you have read here or elsewhere, or it can even take a first-person perspective on a international-policy issue you have witnessed. Other than looking around the site to get a sense of our style and 'voice', that's really the only guidance I would offer. We're open to your ideas.
One further thing: you might have noticed that, these days, The Interpreter has a number of regulars contributing from around the Asia Pacific. If you're a woman based somewhere in the region and you think you have that special combination of skills to be a regular Interpreter correspondent — deep expertise in your chosen country and what I would call a 'journalistic sensibility' — then I would love also to hear from you.