The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2021

30 JULY-AUGUST 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In particular, we have no visibility into how intersectionality plays into Foreign Service members’ experiences in the depart- ment and their decisions to leave. But we know from first- person accounts—like the Speaking Out column from six Black, female, Ivy League graduates and members of the Foreign Service in the November 2020 Foreign Service Journal — that they face unacceptable bias in our workplace. Absent official statistics, EW@S undertook a survey last Sep- tember that asked our members to rate 22 possible barriers to advancement of women within the department. More than 700 respondents, including 482 members of the Foreign Service, ranked barriers on a scale from zero (no impact) to five (huge impact) from three categories: barriers related specifically to gender, barriers related to family life, and barriers related to workplace challenges. Respondents identified the following three issues as having the largest impact. Unconscious bias related to gender. Respondents cited man- agerial assumptions that women with caregiver responsibilities would not want certain kinds of career-advancing assignments; co-worker expectations that women take on housework, social planning and other work to keep an office running that is not deemed “career-enhancing”; and embassy leadership reflec- tions of host-country sensibilities around gender norms—and misconceptions about a woman’s comfort in those environ- ments—when determining the numbers of women attending meetings and official events. Lack of a mechanism, or its failure, to hold higher-level per- sonnel accountable for gender bias or discrimination. Respon- dents worried that reporting bias and discrimination from a rater or reviewer would lead to a bad employee evaluation report, as well as negatively affect their corridor reputation—a consequence that directly impedes advancement in the For- eign Service. A culture that discourages the use of work-life balance flexibilities. Respondents repeatedly described offices where Nothing would enhance the status of career women at the State Department more than regularly being selected for top jobs. overwork is rewarded and incentivized on an individual basis, even when the department officially discourages it, and where people who use permitted workplace flexibilities are perma- nently derailed from career advancement. In addition, the Foreign Service respondents highly ranked barriers like the exclusion of women from informal networks of leadership personnel, and the failure to identify and select them for career-enhancing positions, suggesting that the current design of advancement in the Foreign Service may inherently leave women behind. EW@S has shared the results of this survey with department leadership and is engaging with bureau leaders on how to address these barriers. Data Needed All these barriers to advancement have only been exacerbated by the COVID- 19 pandemic. The threat of illness and lack of medical care at one’s duty station, the increased caregiving respon- sibilities brought on by school closures and risk to elderly parents, and the blurring of the boundary between home and work that the pandemic brought about are taking their toll. In the economy as a whole, studies already demonstrate that the pandemic has forced women out of the workforce at alarming rates, with permanent repercussions for their future employ- ment prospects. With this in mind, Executive Women @ State urges State to investigate whether the resignations of women since the pandemic began were connected to that event, and whether the use of provided flexibilities was successful in mod- erating its effects. We know that assembling the data we seek will not be easy. The department has been transparent about the limitations of its current systems to produce much of this information. How- ever, several encouraging initiatives are underway to find new ways to gather and analyze these statistics. To achieve his goal of a Foreign Service that looks “like the country we represent,” EW@S urges Secretary Blinken to fully support these initiatives and provide the resources sufficient to realize their goals. We have the momentum now to make meaningful progress toward gender parity; let’s use it. n