Giving Compass' Take:

• Nadia Schadlow reports that the Trump administration's Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative aims help women globally to improve the safety and security of Americans. 

• How can this initiative make the most impact? What barriers keep women out of the workforce and positions of power around the world? 

• Learn about the impact of the Trump administration's global gag rule on women around the world. 

When women are free to own, create and build, societies flourish and economies grow. A recent McKinsey Global Institute study found that advancing women’s role in the workplace could add $12 trillion to global GDP — an amount equivalent in size to the current GDP of Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom combined.

To enhance our national security, as well as global stability and growth, the United States must catalyze the full and free participation of women in the global economy. This is the foundation for the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP) launched by the White House in February of 2019, which aims to reach 50 million women across the developing world by 2025.

As outlined in its National Security Strategy (NSS), the Trump administration is a strong advocate of the idea that the United States can be a catalyst, by creating conditions for bottom-up positive transformations in other societies rather than by imposing top-down change.

While this administration rightly recognizes the need to restore America’s military power — badly eroded under budget sequestration — it also recognizes that American influence can be advanced by more than military means. A key to successful leadership is to align ourselves with, and to enable, the aspirations of citizens in other societies that wish to join the arena of developed democracies.

Women in many developing countries are potential allies. In fact, the McKinsey study found that the more women are economically empowered and participating in the workforce, the less likely it is that a country will be involved in violent conflict.

Read the full article about KTrump Administration Initiative Aims to Empower Women GloballyD by Nadia Schadlow at Hudson Institute.