To celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day on 8th March, the Foreign Office released a selection of the views of H M Representatives Abroad in 1933 on whether women should be appointed to the Diplomatic and Consular Services.
The premise was to show how far we’ve come. Whilst the quotes do indeed make entertaining, and sometimes laughable, reading (I’ve included a selection below), I wonder if the only real progress we’ve made is the curtailment of saying these things out loud. I’m not suggesting everyone carries these prejudices on their shoulders, but some familiar themes arise:
- Women should focus on supporting their men (Paris)
- Attractive and clever women are not to be taken seriously (Berne)
- Women are prone to hormonal and unstable outbursts (Santa Domingo)
- Having babies and working are incompatible (Sofia)
- Certain stereotypes are not suitable (Bucharest)
See what you think …
‘There is no career in the world in which a man’s work is so much shared by a woman as is a married diplomat’s by his wife. A woman with the right personal gifts who marries a diplomat or a consular officer and is conscientious about the performance of her duties is, as you know, invaluable to the public service and one can think of many Ambassadors and Ministers in the past, who have owed a great part of their personal success and of the success of their best work to their wives. There are far more opportunities for women who are in the diplomatic service in this sense, than there ever can be for those who might enter it alone.’
Lord Tyrrell, Paris
‘I dare say that the intellectual type of woman, which would presumably be the type to enter the Service, would be as useful as an man in a purely intellectual occupation such as that of junior clerk in the Foreign Office … [However] the value of a diplomatist still largely depends on his success in making “contacts” with other people. In this regard, the intellectual type of English woman would … be at a disadvantage when dealing with foreigners … For, to put it bluntly, the clever woman would not be liked and the attractive woman would not be taken seriously.’
Sir H W Kennard, Berne
‘Constant walking on the shifting sands of foreign politics and administrations calls or a balanced and equable temperament. Without it a nervous breakdown is inevitable. It is no secret that women abroad face similar difficulties in the domestic sphere well enough, but that is because the ultimate responsibility lies on their husbands. Take away this sheet anchor and the result would be deplorable. Add to the anxieties of diplomatic and consular work, final responsibility and the enervating effects of so many climates, and the result would be at least doubly deplorable.’
H E Slaymaker, Santo Domingo
‘In the case of consular work it would be difficult for a woman to deal with mutinous crews or hectoring shipmasters, and it would be distinctly unpleasant for her to look after syphilitic seamen. Most shipmasters would find it very distasteful to discuss such complaints with a female consul.’
Christopher Paus, Oslo
‘It is unthinkable that a diplomatic or consular officer should produce babies and at the same time do her work properly. It may be said that she might practice contraception. But even so the position of an official married woman with an unofficial husband, and still more with an official one, would be untenable. Nothing in this letter should be read as contesting the wisdom of appointing distinguished spinsters or widows as heads of diplomatic missions. Whenever it is thought desirable to go outside the service for a high diplomatic appointment, the selection should, in my opinion, be made irrespective of sex.’
Sydney Waterlow, Sofia
‘I make no doubt that women could carry out the normal duties of press-reading, translation, summarising, note and despatch writing and so on. As regards their social duties, that would naturally depend on the type of individual selected for any particular post. The hard bitten Englishwoman nurtured in the London School of Economics, with a Marx and Engels outlook and a passionate devotion to Professor Tawney; the product of Girton or Somerville, interested chiefly in the ancient Greek theatre, but wielding from time to time a forceful hockey stick; …the “shires” girl who breakfasts off an ether cocktail and who will abandon the Chancery entirely for the polo field – none of these would be suitable representatives … and it is, I imagine from these types, which have their masculine equivalents in the diplomatic and consular services, that candidates would largely be chosen.’
J Greenway, Bucharest
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