Integration of gender in international science, technology and innovation (STI) collaboration: learning from international feminist policies

Science, technology and innovation (STI) is increasingly characterized by its international nature (Griset, 2020). The rising internationalization of STI is argued to be due to the growing importance of the knowledge economy, and the role of STI in finding solutions to wicked problems, such as climate change (Leijten, 2017; Schot and Steinmuller 2018). Yet, both international affairs and STI institutions that have impact on STI policies continue to be masculinised spaces, where overall resistance to women’s meaningful participation remains standard practice. This has not only shaped the ways in which international STI policies and programmes influence different segments of the population, but also demarcated the group who makes decisions at the international sphere, what kind of questions are being raised and addressed, and who primarily benefits from international STI agreements and its outputs, including funding. Following the gendered organizations theory’s notion of (STI and international) institutions “as sites that (re)produce gender dynamics and the gender order” (Rodriguez and Guenther 2022), we explore through a comparative case study organizations that have either implemented feminism into official (foreign) policy principle, or work as forerunners in integrating gender into STI related projects and ask “how can feminist (foreign) policy principles guide integration of gender dimension into STI diplomacy?”.