08/09/2018 Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of the Female Diplomat
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Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of theFemale Diplomat
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08/09/2018 Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of the Female Diplomat
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WRITTEN BY
Nirupama Rao
Updated: Aug 24, 2014, 06:00 AM IST
Book: Women of the World: The Rise of the Female DiplomatAuthor: Helen McCarthyPublisher: BloomsburyPages416Price: Rs 599
For those who assume the female diplomat has been around for a long time, a study of history will revealotherwise. The only women in the world of diplomacy until the early 20th century were the "ambassadresses" orwives of ambassadors. A New York Times report in 1902 spoke of how in drawing rooms, courts, or at any royalfunction which ladies attend, "it is the 'Ambassadress', not the Ambassador who has to be considered. Sometimesshe is a touchy personage indeed."
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography said of Lady Hariot Dufferin, whose husband went on to become theviceroy of India, that she was regarded as "the most effective diplomatic wife of her generation". These were notcareer diplomats but wives of powerful men who left a mark on history with their charm, wit, charisma andambition.In 1933, it was stated in a debate in the British House of Commons, "The special virtues of women aresingularly ill-adapted to diplomatic life". Counted among womanly virtues were intuition and sympathy – the�rst regarded as "absolutely fatal" to diplomacy, tempting "people to jump to conclusions", and the latter "equallyfatal" since it caused people to "identify with causes or personalities with which or whom they feel sympathy".
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08/09/2018 Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of the Female Diplomat
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Together, it was concluded, these "virtues" would be fatal "to that very balanced attitude which it is the businessof the Diplomatic Service to preserve".
Since the pronouncement of those overarching, gender biased obiter dicta, women have come a long way in thediplomatic service of the United Kingdom, which is the subject of Helen McCarthy's account of the rise of"Women of the World" – or the female diplomat - as they have in chancelleries of diverse nations across theworld. In India's foreign service, those early days post-independence saw the appointment of pioneering womendiplomats like C.B. Muthamma, Rukmini Menon and Rama Mehta setting the stage for a succession of womenentering the portals of the Ministry of External Affairs. They proved their worth as able of�cers and in no waywere lesser mortals than their male colleagues, on serving the national cause with distinction.
In Britain, one reason advanced to establish that a career in embassies and consulates abroad was not �t for awoman was that they would be at an automatic disadvantage dealing with such categories as "drunken sailors".This is reminiscent of an argument often heard in similar contexts that women in embassies would be mis�tssince they "could not go to the airport" to receive dignitaries at night. A 1934 press report spoke of a mainobjections to women in the diplomatic service being that "a large proportion of the 400 odd posts are in unhealthyparts of the world". McCarthy's account speaks of the �rst women entrants to the British Foreign Service, post-World War II. (India seems to have led, rather than followed, in this regard since our �rst women diplomatsentered the scene in 1948/49 whereas Mary Galbraith, the �rst woman foreign service appointee for Britain, beganher Foreign Of�ce career in October 1951. Our �rst career diplomat woman ambassador was C.B. Muthamma whobecame ambassador to Hungary in 1970. The �rst British woman career ambassador was Dame Anne Warburtonwho became ambassador to Denmark in 1976.) World War II had opened the space for women to prove their worthin many quasi-diplomatic areas of functioning, as also in intelligence work and communications. In the early20th century, pioneers like explorer and archaeologist, Gertrude Bell, an Arabist, left a huge imprint with theirstellar work in the Middle East, despite the fact that there were men like the British MP, Mark Sykes, whodescribed her (Bell) as "a �at-chested, man-woman, globe-trotting, rump-wagging, blathering ass". Such diatribesapart, Bell was widely regarded as a combination of 'masculine vigour, hard common sense and practicalef�ciency – all tempered by feminine charm and a most romantic spirit'. Stalin's Soviet Union had, during thisperiod, led the way with the appointment of Alexandra Kollontai as Ambassador to Norway in1922. Kollantai'segalitarian instincts and sympathetic manner endeared her to many. She did not see any need to claim feminineprecedence, or wield feminine charms as some of her Western colleagues were later wont to do, and was regardedas exceptional.
Outnumbered by their male colleagues, a tiny minority of four women also af�xed their signatures to the Charterof the United Nations in 1945. No record of those times can also ignore the impact of Vijayalakshmi Pandit who,as president of the UN General Assembly and ambassador to the United States, and also to the Soviet Union, left amark on the diplomatic history of our young republic in the �fties of the last century as also in the countrieswhere she served, particularly in the US.
The "marriage bar" restricted the rise of women in the foreign services of countries like Britain and India foryears. It bore the stain of sex discrimination. Our own diplomatic service lost many women stalwarts like Rama
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08/09/2018 Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of the Female Diplomat
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Mehta, Mira Sinha Bhattacharjea and Surjit Mansingh who quit their careers post marriage. It was only in theearly seventies that this iniquitous requirement which prevented married women from applying for foreignservice was dropped. In Britain, and in India.
The advance of women to posts of a sensitive nature and responsibility in diplomacy has been slow the worldover. It is only in the last two decades that women secretaries of state in the US were seen. In India, we now havea woman external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, who is our leading diplomat today. It was only in 2001, 54years after Independence that our �rst woman foreign secretary, Chokila Iyer, was appointed.
McCarthy observes that the presence of women at leadership level in global summits is limited and exceptionaland there is a tendency to hold women to a higher standard. She notes, "Even in the 21 century, woman wieldingserious power in the global political arena is an oddity, a phenomenon to be explained rather than taken forgranted. Not only is her performance subject to closer scrutiny than her male peers, but it often comes to stand asa test of the ability of all women and to re�ect, for good or ill, the wisdom of allowing a woman to do a 'man's job'."These are truths that must be acknowledged.
Women of the World is an easy and interesting read, charting thecourse of female advancement in a professionthat has long been exclusively for men. The "old diplomacy" was very much a male club. The new diplomacy ismore gender-friendly, though we are nowhere near concluding that the aspirations of women in the �eld havebeen met.
(Nirupama Rao is an Indian Foreign Services of�cer, who served as foreign secretary of India and ambassador tothe United States)
Britain United States of America (USA) Denmark India Norway Ministry of External Affairs Nirupama Rao Stalin
Sushma Swaraj Hungary Oxford Soviet Union Book Review woman New York Times External Affairs Minister
Vijayalakshmi Pandit Diplomats UN General Assembly Middle East
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08/09/2018 Book Review: Women of the World- The Rise of the Female Diplomat
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