The Foreign Service Journal, November 2018

66 NOVEMBER 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL seek to use their education and employment experience once they were at post. A key turning point occurred inside the Department of State in 1969, when William B. Macomber was appointed deputy under secretary of State for management and instituted a series of operational reforms. As part of these Macomber Reforms, the “1972 Directive” was published. It stated for the first time that wives of Foreign Service officers, who were not themselves U.S. government employees, could no longer be required to perform free services for the U.S. government. Nor could they be rated in a husband’s annual employee efficiency report (EER). Previ- ously, the wife’s evaluation had been included in the classified “Part B” portion of the EER, to which the rated officer did not have access. The results of this directive were mixed. Older women felt that their previous work and devotion to duty on behalf of the Foreign Service had been devalued. Younger women tended to see the directive as liberating, paving the way for change. I often found myself both explaining to older women why younger women wished to work, and clarifying for younger women why their older colleagues did not support that idea. AAFSW, the Forum and the Foundation of FLO Women’s changing expectations began to have an effect on diplomatic life. Independent of AAFSW, a small group of wives at State formed the Research Committee on Spouses in 1975. They distributed a short survey to FSOs, through which they documented that 35 percent of FSOs polled would consider their wife’s prospects for finding work in selecting future posts. The Research Committee then briefed AAFSW, pointing out that if FSOs began to consider employment opportunities for wives as a major factor in selecting posts, it could become a management problem. The committee also suggested to AAFSW that it would be useful to gather additional information to get a better picture of the changing concerns of Foreign Service wives. My husband and I and our two children returned to the United States in June 1975, and I was eager to get involved in the issue, especially since I had seen the changing situation from overseas. As luck would have it, the late Lesley Dorman became president of AAFSW in 1976. Lesley was idealistic, forceful and accomplished at getting things done. She talked easily with everyone from the Secretary of State to junior employees. Cutting the cake at FLO’s 40th anniversary event on March 1 at the State Department are, from left, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan; Mette Beecroft; Susan Pompeo, the spouse of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and FLO Director Susan Frost. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/MARKSTEWART Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and FLO Director Janet Lloyd cut the ribbon at the March 1, 1978, opening ceremony for the Family Liaison Office. COURTESYOFTHEFAMILYLIAISONOFFICE