For women attempting to follow the path of representing Australia in diplomatic roles, the choice is not expected to be an easy one. Much like other high ranking public service positions, diplomacy is a career that has been traditionally dominated by men. In recent years, Australia has made huge improvements for women seeking to fill diplomatic roles. As of 2018, 40% of all overseas representatives were women, up from 27% the year before. We had our first female Minister for Foreign Affairs, with Julie Bishop appointed in 2013, and the post is still held by a woman, Marise Payne, appointed in 2018. Our current ambassador to the United Nations is a woman, Gillian Bird who is not the first female to fill this position. Finally, the position Secretary of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is held Frances Adamson, a woman.
However, statistics and a couple of very recent appointments cannot represent what it is like being a woman within a diplomatic role. Nor can it show how gender affects work and family life balance, work expectations or the ability of women to rise to senior diplomatic roles. It can’t explain why women are needed within diplomatic roles, not just for gender equality but to bring deeper and more diverse experiences that can improve how Australia can interact with the rest of the world.
For many, it would be surprising to learn that the meeting of gender quotas in many workplaces does nothing to combat many of the issues that women face in the workplace, including in the foreign service. While it may be a first step to decreasing gender based discrimination for women attempting to break into the workplace of their choice, it does little to elevate the pressure that some women face to perform. Statistic changes don’t cut it, and we need to take it a step further and recognise the difficulties faced by many women, in this case in their carers as diplomats.
Family and work life balance
For some women, in many different careers, finding a balance between both work and family life is something they must conquer. Diplomatic roles are no different, and could be considered harder for women. Most diplomatic roles require the diplomat to move overseas to their posting for a large amount of time. For a diplomat with a family, this requires finding schools for children, and work for their partners. A diplomat could be lucky. They could be posted somewhere that their family know the language, or local regulations allow their partner to find suitable work in their own field. This diplomat would have to be very lucky. For female diplomats with male partners who cannot work in the posted country, it can get particularly difficult. Children, in an unfamiliar place who are trying to make friends with people that most likely don’t speak their language, need their parents. While the answer should be that the male partner might as well stay at home with the kids, it is not that easy for some. Traditional gender stereotypes of a male ‘bread winner’ and a female ‘housewife’ have permeated our society for decades. While most may agree that it is easier for women to access work and employment now, allowing children to be put into childcare or school, there is still a gendered pressure to be a ‘good’ mum and stay home with the kids. And for their male counterparts, gender stereotypes about what makes a ‘good’ man, such as working hard to provide for their family, put a lot of pressure on both the diplomat and her male partner. These gendered stereotypes also translate into the workplace, informing who or what traits make a ‘good’ diplomat, and can contribute to the pressure that they are already feeling at home.
Workplace barriers
Globally, the practice of diplomacy is still often viewed as a masculine world. While women may make up 40% of the diplomatic representatives of Australia, they are still expected to be driven by masculine norms that diplomacy is about being forceful and tough. This can have a few consequences for the women in these roles. Due to their gender, female diplomats are not expected to be as good at negotiation as their male counterparts, and must make up for their employers doubts by working harder. This affects both home life and personal confidence. It puts more pressure on what is most likely an already tense household, as women put more time and energy into their work in order to achieve a higher standard of work. It also wrecks personal confidence in their own ability, as they may feel as though the lack of attention or praise from their employers means there is something wrong with themselves. It can also make it difficult for women to enter into leadership positions. As DFAT has recognised in the past couple of years, women were not progressing within the ranks of the organisation. Their Women in Leadership Strategy, released in 2015, recognises that the culture within the organisation had lead to women to not be even attempting to apply for senior leadership positions, despite performing at the same standard as their male peers. While DFAT would prefer to view this as not making the most of all the talent within the organisation, I would like to focus on what makes women a vital part of any diplomatic mission.
Why women?
As discussed earlier, careers such as diplomacy have been traditionally male dominated, and the roles itself is often viewed as a masculine practice. As a result, diplomats, male or female enter into the role with a narrow understanding about what it means to be a diplomat, and how to be a good negotiator. While women may gain merit, and rise up the ranks by conforming to the traditional practices of diplomacy, women have unique experiences and thus ways of dealing with conflict that may contribute to a better diplomatic service.
Nor should women just be limited to ‘feminine’ issues such as gender inclusion, children’s wellbeing or humanitarian efforts. Women are better for ensuring a lasting peace in post-conflict zones. According the the UN, peace agreements that are signed by female delegates are more likely last longer. Whether or not this is because as Madeleine Albright, Secretary of state under US President Bill Clinton argues, ‘women are much better at having peripheral vision and also multitasking and having the capability of telling it like it is,’ the facts still remain the same; women need to be in on peace negotiations. Women can help shift the focus of diplomacy from abstract ideas such as ‘state interests’ or ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ to put a primary focus on the people that make up states and their interests, to build a longer lasting peace. This is not to say that women make naturally better diplomats than men, but rather, that the female experience can bring a more diverse understanding about the world that can enrich the negotiation skills of any diplomatic mission.
Conclusions
While Australia’s DFAT has made attempts at recognising the issues that effect women entering senior positions in diplomatic roles, more can be done to ensure that women have a more entrenched place as overseas representatives of Australia.
DFAT should be doing more to change the gender discriminatory culture, not just in the work place, but pressures at home. This could be providing more support for partners of diplomats, such as finding jobs either within the public service and the country of their diplomat partner or providing support groups for partners of diplomats. DFAT need to ensure that they alleviate expectations and pressures to perform both at home and in the workplace.
We need to let women make mistakes. No one is perfect all the time, and even if women were naturally better diplomats than men, this does not mean that every woman is, or that every man cannot be just as good. Particularly for the next generation of women entering a diplomatic career, they need to see their role models not as unreachable and perfect, but able to learn from their mistakes. This can help boost the confidence of many women who may believe they can’t bounce back from mistakes they made in their first year.
We need to broaden our understanding of diplomacy and international relations. Diplomacy should not be a masculine space, needing only forcefulness and toughness. To be good negotiators, we need to understand other people and view the issue from broader perspectives and experiences. We need to be searching for peace and solutions, not for a win.
We need to recognise the unique experiences and perspectives of women, to truly enrich our negotiation and diplomatic capabilities.
