In the Department of State

As in Congress, the number of women appointed to the U.S. Department of State has increased greatly over the past century. Women were permitted to join the U.S. diplomatic corps in 1922. In 1933, Ruth Bryan Owen was the first woman to be appointed chief of mission as head of the U.S. embassy for Denmark and Iceland. However, in the following 42 years, there was little significant increase in the number of women in diplomatic positions in the State Department; it was only beginning under the Ford and Carter administrations that more women were appointed to senior positions, with a total of 10 and 28 respectively. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush followed the trend, with 33 and 37 appointments, and later President Clinton made the jump into the hundreds (Wright 2005). As such, the number of women in the Department of State increased very gradually at first, beginning in 1933, and met a significant spike in the 1970s, leading up to its status in the past few years, where the number of women is only slightly less than men.

Appointment of women as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations is also a recent development, beginning under the Reagan administration. The female ambassadors to the United Nations, from beginning to today, commenced in the following order:

1. Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, in 1981
2. Madeleine K. Albright, in 1993
3. Susan Rice, in 2009
4. Samantha Power, in 2013

 

Importance of Consideration

The United States Department of State leads the nation in foreign policy issues, negotiates treaties and agreements with foreign entities, and represents the U.S. at the United Nations (“Department of State” 2016). Therefore, it is vitally important to consider the role of women in this area of the U.S. political system as well when analyzing possible differences in foreign policy beliefs and approaches.

Peacekeeping Tendencies: A Disagreement

Perhaps due to the previously discusses view of women as having a generally more caring disposition, it would be easy to speculate that this inclination would extend further to their work in the State Department, as it did somewhat in Congress; however, it appears that opinions on that front varied widely for women the state department. In research conducted by Nancy McGlen and Meredith Reid Sarkees, it was shown that career women at State favored “fostering international cooperation”, and were more likely than men to favor combatting world hunger and giving foreign aid to poor countries. This would be more in line with the previous expectations of women, regarding their tendencies to focus on areas of care, support, and outreach.

However, in stark contrast, the same research found that the female political appointees at State “strongly endorsed the Cold War view of an expansionist Soviet Union and the need to contain Communism, even if it meant using force”, and that “more modern goals like combatting world hunger or protecting the global environment were downgraded, as was the tactic of fostering international cooperation” (McGlen 1993, 204). These two views are at total opposites, with the female political appointees at State “downgrading” all of the issues more valued by the career women.

In this sense, it is difficult to determine if women in the State Department had any collective effect on foreign policy in recent decades; some took the more stereotypically “caring” approach, while others called for expansionist policies and use of violence, if necessary. The range of views on the subject prevent a clear picture from forming regarding any gender-wide conclusions on foreign policy inclinations and influence.

Humanitarian Outreach

In this video, foreign policy analyst and political scientist Anne-Marie Slaughter describes the challenges women face in foreign policy as well as the advances women have made in the field.