Quarter. That is the average proportion of women ambassadors in the countries of the European Union. Three quarters are men. There is another sThis is an important gender factor in the diplomatic career of the old continent: it is not only that there are fewer female ambassadors, but that the most important embassies usually go to men.
Only Finland, Sweden and Norway have gender parity in their mission headquarters in foreign countries, according to data published on October 27 by the report ‘She-curity’, women and security, prepared by MEP Hannah Neumann. It contains the latest figures provided by the countries on the participation of women in different areas of foreign relations. The ‘usual suspects’ in equality, the Nordic countries, are followed by others such as Ireland and Austria, somewhat below. The case of Spain is peculiar. In 2020, the figure was 21%. A year later (with Arancha González Laya as Foreign Minister), it rose to 36%. At the moment it is only 25%, according to calculations made by this newspaper.
At the bottom of the list are, below 15%, Hungary, Portugal and Slovakia. Belgium closes the table, with only one ambassador for every nine ambassadors. In the world, there are countries like Japan or South Korea with practically no female ambassadors.
At the current rate of growth in the presence of women in the foreign service, the report notes, the world will there are about forty years left until we reach gender parity. It is going faster in the EU, but the time it will take for EU countries to have the same number of female ambassadors as male ambassadors is estimated at 18 years.
Diplomats from the European Union have just launched a network to try to change this scenario and give each other support in this career dominated by men. They connect the national associations of diplomats with each other, and these with the officials of the External Action Service of the EU. It is an informal network of networks in which training, ideas and resources are shared.. They have called it Wedin EU, for the Network of Diplomatic Women, and it aims, among other things, to “strengthen women diplomats and feminist diplomacy that promotes equality between men and women in the world.”
“We want to give ourselves mutual support with a supranational structure to the networks in each existing country, and to coordinate with other embryonic ones”, Aude Maio-Coliche told El Periódico de España. the diplomat of the Foreign Service of the European Union who coordinates Wedin EU. She is a kind of diplomatic sorority, but not only among themselves, she emphasizes, but also towards the rest of the women in the world. For example, they hold exchange forums with the heads of Foreign Affairs of those other countries where gender equality is less developed. “We will be promoters of equality between men and women in third countries outside Europe”.
The launch of this structure coincides in time with a change course in Sweden, one of the most emblematic countries in terms of gender equality. The center-right government formed in the last elections has decided to eliminate the “feminist foreign policy” that Stockholm had been defending for years. Everything, after in the last elections of the Scandinavian country the far-right party Sweden Democrats has been the second most voted. That doesn’t mean they won’t promote equality, says the Swedish government.
That feminist foreign policy was also included in the document Acción Exterior 2021-2024 published by Arancha González Laya, before she was dismissed. It focused on actions aimed at improving the situation of women in the world, especially the poorest or in conflict zones. It also specified the changes that should take place within the diplomatic career itself to make it more similar to Spanish society. “In the case of mission headquarters, the objective will not be exclusively quantitative, but qualitative: it will ensure that an adequate representation of women is achieved in priority geographical areas for our foreign policy”. No specific quotas or figures were imposed.
“The figures alone do not reflect the fact that until now the most relevant positions have never been held by a woman: neither the heads of embassies in London, Paris, Washington or Rabat nor those of the permanent representations to the United Nations. United States in New York or before the EU or NATO in Brussels”, Cristina Fraile, president of the Association of Spanish Diplomatic Women (AMDE), stressed to this newspaper last July.
AMDE is part of the European network of networks. “We think that the exchange of experiences, the creation and promotion of contact networks and joint work make us stronger and more effective in achieving our objectives”, adds Fraile. He gives as an example how the Spanish organization helped promote, in 2020, the Dominican association an informal network of Ibero-American networks.
One of the practical issues that most conditions the career of diplomats is the need to change country. And one of the most common claims is that they be told the destinations as soon as possible; You have to look for a school for the children in the new destinations, and the usual notice of a few months is usually not enough. This issue tends to affect women diplomats to a greater extent, says Maio-Coliche. It is another of the practical issues on which the networks and associations of diplomatic women want to press.