The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2021 29 Representation at the Top Executive Women @ State welcomes this administration’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are working tirelessly and in collaboration with fellow EAGs and employee orga- nizations on two immediate priorities: filling senior leadership positions with career Foreign Service and Civil Service women, and stem- ming the departure of women, particularly at the midlevel, from the department. We see a true opportunity in this moment to achieve great progress toward our vision of gender parity in both numbers and roles for career women at all levels—particularly in the senior levels at State. Nothing would enhance the status of career women at the State Department more than regularly being selected for top jobs—ambassador and special envoy, deputy chief of mission, assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary—as well as achieving gender parity in those appointments across bureaus. Drawing from this group before they leave the department will send a clear signal that women can, and will, advance in the For- eign Service. Doing so also would bring the State Department in line with historic practices at the Department of Defense, Cen- tral Intelligence Agency and other national security agencies. Representation at the top will have a significant impact on women’s career advancement in the department, but we must also focus on identifying and removing the institutional barriers keeping women from advancing in greater numbers and driving them to leave before they can compete for top jobs. The 2020 Foreign Service promotion statistics show that women, when given the chance, are competitive; they earn promotion at a higher rate than men. But because fewer women than men are competing, the gender imbalance grows as women advance through the ranks. For example, once women reach the Senior Foreign Service, they are promoted at a near-equal number. But not enough women get there: As a result, women make up a smaller percent- age of the SFS than the ranks up to FS-1, and there are fewer women available to take top jobs. Women make up only 40 percent of the total number of people promoted into the SFS (from FS-1 to FE-OC) and from FS-2 to FS-1, suggesting that something is preventing women from advancing through the midlevels. Among specialists, the promotion statistics show women are concentrated in specialties that begin at lower ranks where fewer opportunities to advance keep them even further from parity after the FS-4 rank. No one-size-fits-all solution exists for women’s advance- ment in the Foreign Service. The intersectionality of gender, race, sexual orientation, caregiver status, skill code and other factors creates unique challenges across the department’s female work- force. We won’t achieve gender parity until we understand and address this phenomenon. To begin this effort, we need to iden- tify the barriers to women’s advancement at State. We are encour- aged by the department’s ongoing efforts, greatly furthered by the advocacy of EW@S and the EAG / equal opportunity community, to increase data transparency generally. Identifying Barriers to Advancement Now we need more data on why women leave the depart- ment. We urge State to direct resources toward studying why women are not better represented in senior positions, what pushes women and minorities to leave the department at the midlevel, and what prevents more diverse talent from rising through the senior ranks. In March 2016, the FSJ considered the topic of women in the Foreign Service, as Editor in Chief Shawn Dorman put it at the time, “with a look back, a look ahead and a few ideas for keeping a positive trend going.”