In an increasingly fraught and challenging international environment, a spotlight has been thrown on the importance of constructive foreign policy engagement, and on understanding the various elements of international relations and negotiations. To do this, one would hope, we can draw on all available expertise. However, as the charts in this paper, as well as some of the statistics quoted below, suvest, the capabilities and skills of women in fields connected to foreign and security policy in Czechia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are woefully underutilized. Even though women possess the same degree of education and competence in these fields, due to persisting stereotypes, biases and structural obstacles, it is significantly more difficult for them to attain higher positions in political or administrative positions related to foreign policy.

This policy brief offers ideas on how to contribute to improving this and enable, if not gender parity, than at least more equitable participation of women in shaping and implementing foreign policy. The authors focus on four selected areas – how to use the potential of women networking, how to change the way women are represented in the media, how to foster gender sensitive thinking into education and finally, how to ensure that women diplomats have equal chances in foreign service as their male counterparts.

This text is one of the outputs of a shared project of four Central European think-tanks – AMO, SFPA, Casimir Pulaski Foundation and the Equilibrium Institute, conducted with the support of the International Visegrad Fund. The majority of the ideas and recommendations listed here have been thoroughly discussed by the participants of four study trips that we undertook to the capitals of the V4 states to facilitate building contacts among female professionals in the above mentioned fields.

While some of these ideas are quite easy to implement, some of them, admittedly, may face hurdles – political, financial or societal – remarkably, even in 2025. In many countries, outdated gender stereotypes not only persist but are actively reinforced by certain political actors. This makes the role of civil society, independent initiatives, women’s networks, and the media all the more crucial in pushing back against eworts to undermine gender equality—an essential pillar of any functioning democracy