Women in Diplomacy
Partner in charge: Katarzyna Pizarska
Overall diplomacy continues to be a mainly-men affair, especially at the highest levels of the professional ladder. Only 29 percent of the chiefs of mission at the State Department and of senior foreign positions at USAID are held by women; 29 percent of the staff at the EEAS headquarters are women and 19 percent of the EU head of Delegation are women. In the UK, women hold 22 percent of the senior management positions in the Foreign Office;in Italy—despite the fact that since 2010 women outnumber men in applying for the diplomatic service—women represent 20 percent of the total, out of which 4 percent hold the rank of Ambassador and 7 percent that of Minister. The situation is however totally different in Scandinavia.The Swedish Foreign Ministry created a mentoring scheme that has greatly benefitted new female recruits; in 2013, for the first time, Norway’s foreign ministry named more women than men to head the country’s embassies and general consulates around the world.
Must reads
- Frank, amazing conversation with some remarkable women diplomats.
