This paper considers the question of whether feminist theories and principles hold the potential to help the humanitarian system better meet many of its highest priorities. Research across the world provides widespread evidence that feminism can benefit not just women and girls, but entire communities and societies. Already across the UN system, there are strong normative frameworks and rhetorical commitments to women’s rights and empowerment. Feminist principles are deeply embedded in UN conventions and guidance that are key to humanitarian response.  However, at the level of humanitarian action, these feminist principles tend to “show up” most regularly and explicitly only in specific areas: GBV prevention and response, gender mainstreaming and gender-transformative programming, and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Despite the strong normative frameworks and rhetorical commitments to women’s rights and empowerment, and despite empirical evidence on the value of advancing feminist principles to improve action on key humanitarian priorities, the desk review and key informant interviews conducted for the preparation of this guidance note identified many challenges to feminist-informed humanitarianism.