The Foreign Service Journal, September 2020

44 SEPTEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL After 30 years, another round of the same measures will not do. It’s time to define the problems and seek new solutions. BY PATR I CE JOHNSON Patrice Johnson has served as a Foreign Service offi- cer for 14 years and is currently on sabbatical. Her previous position was as executive director for the Office of Foreign Missions. Prior to that, she served in various operations roles in Washington, D.C., as well as in consular and political roles abroad in El Salvador, Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Spain. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent those of the Department of State or the U.S. government. Y ear after year, for more than 30 years, the State Department has rationalized increas- ing entrance rates of racial and ethnic minorities and women as the appropri- ate “flow through” mechanism whenever the issue of minority representation at the Senior Foreign Service level is raised. With historically low percentages of minorities in senior positions today, we see the inadequacy of this approach. FOCUS ON ADDRESSING RACE, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION It’s Not Just About Intake ANewApproach to Advancing Diversity Back in 1988, in analyzing State’s 1987 affirmative action plan, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had indicated that the underrepresentation of minorities and women at middle and senior ranks of the Foreign Service was a major problem “which could not be directly resolved through entry level hiring of minorities and women, but rather through the internal move- ment or promotion of the individuals already employed” (as cited in the General Accounting Office’s June 1989 report, “State Department: Minorities and Women Are Underrepresented in the Foreign Service”). Clearly, subsequent decades of focused recruitment and hir- ing efforts of racial and ethnic minorities and women have still not aligned the Foreign Service to reflect our diverse population, as required by the Foreign Service Act of 1980. That rationale and process are flawed. Starting from today, it would take 10 full years of consistent intake of minorities and women in the pro- portion in which they are represented in the population for their representation in the State Department to be at parity. And that level can only be reached if Congress authorizes hiring surges at