The Foreign Service Journal, March 2016

24 MARCH 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FOCUS WOMEN IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE Women have made great strides, but more effort is needed to fulfill the legal mandate for a Foreign Service that is “truly representative of the American people throughout all levels.” BY ANDREA STRANO Andrea Strano retired on disability from the Foreign Service in 2015. Before becoming an FSO in 2004, she worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Red Cross in NewYork and Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Geneva, Switzerland. She lives with her husband in Nutley, New Jersey, where she writes, works as a voiceover artist and does volunteer work. She can be reached at a_strano@msn.com. T he struggle for equality of opportunity for Foreign Service women has been long and lively. Ignited by legal chal- lenges by Alison Palmer in 1968, it continues today. Tremendous progress has been made. Fifty years after the first female member of the Foreign Service, Lucile Atcherson, was admitted in 1922, women still made up less than 10 percent of the diplomatic corps and faced systematic discrimination at the State Depart- ment. Today, women comprise 35 percent of the overall Foreign Service (including officers and specialists) at all foreign affairs agencies and 40 percent of the Foreign Service officer corps. Starting with the requirement for female FSOs to resign when they get married, most of the institutionalized discrimination in hiring, pay, promotion and other personnel policies has been overturned. Yet there remains a lingering bias against women that is more subtle, more difficult to get at. Often reported anecdotally, that bias is also concretely reflected in such metrics as the male- female gender breakdown by rank—as ranks increase, female representation decreases. And though 40 percent of FSOs are women, they hold only one-third of the chief-of-mission posi- tions, for example. The Foreign Service Act of 1980 mandates a diplomatic service that is “truly representative of the American people throughout all levels of the Foreign Service.” State Department leadership has acknowledged the benefits of a diverse workforce and demonstrating U.S. values to other countries through its people. However, true representation remains elusive, including for women. The result is a Foreign Service that is not yet benefiting from the full strength of the country that it represents. Standard Bearer and Firebrand Alison Palmer, who joined the State Department in 1955, launched the legal battle for female equality at the State Depart- ment in 1968 with the first equal employment opportunity (EEO) complaint ever heard from the Foreign Service. She followed Foreign Service Women Today: The Palmer Case andBeyond