Key Figures

The following are just a few amongst many women who held significant roles regarding foreign policy issues throughout American History. Listed in approximate chronological order of the dates spent in foreign service.

Abigail Adams

Wife of John Adams (second President of the United States, 1789-97). She became one of the first American women to assist and advise a man in foreign policy, as she accompanied John Adams in diplomatic relations with France. Her letters and diaries also gave insight into the lives of early American diplomatic families, as she and daughter Abigail “Nabby” Adams traveled with John Adams through Europe on colonial America’s diplomatic missions.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32^nd President of the United Sates. She was the longest-serving First Lady, from 1933 to 1945, and held particularly strong opinions regarding the American response to the threat of the Cold War. She believed that one of the main reason behind the conflicts was the expansionist tendencies of the Soviet Union, as well as the U.S.’s hostile responses to these threats.

Ruth Bryan Owen

Former Florida congresswoman, serving from 1929 to 1933. She became the first woman to serve as chief of an American diplomatic mission, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as United States Ambassador to Denmark; she held the position from 1933 to 1936.

Jeane Kirkpatrick

First woman to be appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations, in 1981. She also previously served as a foreign policy advisor to President Reagan, and was a vehement anti-communist, expounding the “Kirkpatrick Doctrine”, which advocated U.S. support for anti-communist authoritarian regimes.

Madeline Albright

First woman to be appointed Secretary of State, serving for 4 years beginning in 1996 under the Clinton administration. She also served as the second-ever female United States Ambassador to the United Nations, appointed in 1993. During her time in U.S. diplomacy, she heavily promoted NATO expansion and interventionism for humanitarian causes.

Condoleezza Rice

Second woman to be appointed Secretary of State, and the first African American female Secretary of State, serving under the Bush administration. She was also previously the National Security Adviser for Bush, and served on the National Security Council under President George H. W. Bush. Described as advocating “an idealist foreign policy to achieve realist ends”, she pushed for the transformation of the internal dynamics of the Middle East.

Hillary Clinton

Third woman to be appointed Secretary of State, nominated by President Obama and serving from 2009 to 2013. She was also the First Lady to President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, and a United States Senator from New York between 2001 and 2009. In American diplomacy, she has left a strong legacy, calling for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in 2012, and promoting women’s and children’s rights worldwide.