The Foreign Service Journal, June 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2020 45 Many wives keenly felt the pressure of the spotlight, which they often referred to as living in the “goldfish bowl” where “you’ve got to be so careful.” Service gave them excellent training in “the responsibilities and obligations and duties” of the Foreign Service. The Grew family and others recognized that child-rearing and family life represented another significant part of diplomatic life, even though many Foreign Service wives had little time to care for their children, and usually relied on a nanny or other domes- tic help. As Yvonne Jordan stated simply, “It was difficult to care for a child” while juggling all her other responsibilities. Most diplomatic families at this time depended on domestic help, often from locals. Supervising servants fell to the wives. Wives complained that they had to train their servants to per- form the duties needed by a diplomatic household, a challenge often compounded by cultural and language barriers. Dorothy Emmerson considered that supervising servants was often “in itself a full-time job” and that this particular obligation was “the most difficult part of the Foreign Service.” Managing a large staff in a foreign environment was com- plex, especially given cultural mores, such as the caste system in India, that were unknown in the United States. In their interac- tions with servants, wives were thrust into a formal position of authority while living in a foreign culture they often did not understand. They also did not receive any formal language training (and neither did most Foreign Service officers, with a few exceptions). Many took the initiative to learn a language once they arrived at a new post. Some already had skills in such areas as French or Spanish; others were less adept. Could Barbara Kemp really