The Foreign Service Journal, February 2010

16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 0 Increasing funding to assist the FLO office in its efforts to improve headhunting services and create more Professional Associates positions, ex- panding professional training for EFMs in languages and all core functions of embassy work, and converting more EFM jobs into job-sharing positions would all improve levels of employ- ment among the 9,800 family members serving overseas. Such measures seem obvious ways to address staffing short- ages and raise morale, productivity and retention (particularly among female FSOs) —not to mention boosting cur- rent and future family income. My father-in-law, a retired FSO, likes to remind me of the larger insti- tutional and cultural barriers that limit the expansion of spousal employment overseas. I don’t deny these exist, but there are plenty of enterprising indi- viduals within State who could find new ways to expand EFM employ- ment, assuming the support and in- centives existed to do so. At the end of the day, an effective EFM employ- ment program requires commitment from all of State’s employees — not just the staff of AFSA and FLO. My mother-in-law was a Foreign Service spouse in the 1960s and 1970s. We often talk about what has changed for FS spouses overseas since her day, and what has not. Today, as then, many of them happily choose to stay home with children or have home- based careers. In her case, the lack of a meaningful career was what brought her family back to Washington, D.C., never to serve abroad again. Many FS families are making similar choices today for the same reason. It’s high time to change the status quo. Sec. Clinton has extolled the bene- fits to our foreign policy of meaningful employment among women. She can take the first step toward transforming her words into action by focusing on the (mostly female) spouses of U.S. embassy employees overseas. ■ Amanda Fernández is the spouse of a Foreign Service officer currently serv- ing in Quito. A former humanitarian worker, she has lived and worked in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Angola, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She currently works for a USAID contractor. S P E A K I N G O U T