President Donald Trump quietly signed into law last Friday a bi-partisan bill designed to promote the role of women in peace negotiations and conflict prevention abroad.

The Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017, first introduced to the Senate by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Shelley Moore Caputo (R-WV) in May, requires the president to submit a government-wide strategy describing how the U.S. will strengthen women's participation in international peace talks within a year, and whoever's president in four years time must do the same then, according to a summary of the bill on the GovTrack website. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) each joined the bill as co-sponsors shortly after its introduction.

“We need female representation on the world stage that accurately reflects the makeup of communities directly impacted by violence and armed conflict,” Shaheen, the only woman on the 21-member Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement posted online the day of the bill's signing. “I’m proud that this bipartisan effort will sustain the U.S. commitment to promoting greater female representation in conflict resolution and peace-building. Reinforcing these priorities by statute will help to ensure our country continues to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution on the role of women in peace and security by training American diplomats, military personnel and development workers on these important issues, and by requiring the President to produce a strategy to make this a U.S. foreign policy priority.”

The law itself says, "It is the sense of Congress that... the United States should be a global leader in promoting the meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution, and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts."

Trump made no public comment about the signing, save for a White House press release that mentioned it after promoting "The American Legion 100th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act" and other legislation authorizing a bridge be built in Missouri. It was not mentioned in Friday's press briefing, and Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who has described herself as a voice for women's issues in the White House, does not appear to have commented on it either online.

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