About Us

Elevating women to senior leadership positions in national security and foreign policy

The Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization committed to advancing gender parity in national security and foreign policy decision-making. We are a bipartisan community of women and men who have served in senior leadership roles and share a commitment to ensuring U.S. security and foreign policy leadership reflects the full diversity and talent of our nation.

History

Building on the belief that women strengthen national security
LCWINS was founded in 2019 by a small group of women who believed diverse leadership teams yield better national security outcomes.  Years of being “the only woman in the room” led them to formalize their efforts to advance gender parity in national security and foreign policy leadership.

Our work began with a series of projects to support a more diverse and inclusive presidential transition.  In our earliest days we:

  • Successfully encouraged 18 bipartisan presidential candidates in 2020 to publicly commit to gender parity in their national security appointments;
  • Built a database of nearly 1,000 well-qualified women ready to serve in senior politically appointed positions and shared their profiles with the Biden-Harris Transition Team and Presidential Personnel Office to facilitate consideration of more gender-inclusive slates.
  • Published a white paper recommending process improvements to support Transition Teams and the White House Office of Presidential Personnel become more inclusive of women; and
  • Held a series of webinars to help highly experienced women navigate the political appointment and Senate confirmation processes.

These early programs highlighted the ample opportunity to strengthen American foreign and national security policymaking and demonstrated the numbers of women capable of serving at the highest levels of defense and diplomacy leadership.

Today, LCWINS continues this work through programs that build a bipartisan network of support for women’s leadership ascension and success.

People

Meet the people advancing gender parity in U.S. national security and foreign policy leadership.

Many members of the LCWINS community have returned to public service in senior national security and foreign policy leadership positions. We are proud of our alumni and appreciate their continued service.

The LCWINS Honorary Advisory Committee includes senior national security leaders who share our mission and help raise awareness of the work and impact of LCWINS.

LCWINS staff power the organization's strategy and programs.

News

Press releases, op-eds, and podcasts on our work to advance gender parity in U.S. national security and foreign policy leadership.

Please direct media inquiries to
press@lcwins.org.

Who We Are

Meet our staff and volunteer leadership
About the Leadership Council for Women in National Security
Elevating women to senior leadership positions in national security and foreign policy
The Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization committed to advancing gender parity in national security and foreign policy decision-making. We are a bipartisan community of women and men who have served in senior leadership roles and share a commitment to ensuring U.S. security and foreign policy leadership reflects the full diversity and talent of our nation.
LCWINS Strategic Plan
Our vision, mission and priorities are laid out in our five-year strategic plan. Read it below and then check out our other major initiatives.
Our Strategic Plan
LCWINS Initiatives
LCWINS’ advocacy and initiatives are focused on all women in the national security field and are available to anyone. From the LCWINS political appointments tracker and database efforts to our webinars series and opportunities board, our initiatives are focused on elevating and supporting women in the national security field.
See our initiatives