The Female Ambassadors’ Club – how women (finally) took over the diplomatic service

How times have changed. Until 1946 women were banned from being British diplomats – but from this week, with the posting of Menna Rawlings to Paris, all key British ambassadorships will be held by women, for the first time in history.

For much of its 239-year history, the Foreign Office has found a number of creative ways to make things very hard for women. Even after the lifting of the outright ban in 1946, women had to resign if they got married, and their postings were cancelled if (God forbid) they had a baby. It wasn’t until 1987 – when Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister for eight years – that the first married female ambassador was posted overseas.

Some of their rules made a twisted sort of sense. For example, female diplomats were not allowed to train in the “hard languages” of Japanese and Chinese that took over a year of study, according to the blog Understanding the Civil Service. The reason? It wasn’t worth investing in the education for women, who would be forced to leave as soon as they got married.

And then there were lots of reports of downright cattiness towards female diplomats. The blog also reports that women were not permitted as members of the diplomat-favourite Travellers’ Club on Pall Mall (a rule that incredibly remains to this day) and when they dined with male colleagues they were expected to retire with the other wives afterwards, while the men networked over cigars and brandy.

After the Second World War, when women were finally allowed to be diplomats, there was one further hindrance. There was an upside-down version of today’s quota policies: a maximum of 10 per cent of diplomats were allowed to be female, lest women flood in “in embarrassing numbers”, according to a senior civil servant at the time. (In reality, the rules against female diplomats were already so stringent that no such cap was ever necessary.)

But there is some progress being made. From this week, posts in all other G7 countries – France, Germany, Italy, the US, Canada and Japan – are filled by women, and there are also female ambassadors in Australia, China, Russia and the UN.

So who are the women leading the way?

Menna Rawlings – France

Rawlings, 53, has had an impressive diplomatic career prior to her appointment as the ambassador to France this week. She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1989, and has been posted in various locations including Nairobi, Washington DC, Accra, Tel Aviv and Brussels. Most recently, she served as the British High Commissioner in Australia from 2015 to 2019.

She was awarded the CMG (British order of chivalry) in 2014, and is married with three children. She is the UK’s first female ambassador to France.

Rawlings has spoken about the issue of gender equality in the past, including in a 2018 blog post that she wrote about Jodie Whittaker becoming the first female Dr Who. “In my house, the news that a woman will finally get to play this iconic role is celebrated and, if anything, seen as overdue,” she wrote. “At a time when we are still struggling to get girls to stay in STEM subjects, it is fantastic that they will finally see a female Doctor, just like them (well, except for her two hearts obviously), travelling through time, using sonic screwdrivers and saving the universe.”

Jill Gallard – Germany

Gallard, 52, took up the post late last year, becoming the first British ambassador to Germany. She has had a long career in European diplomacy, with postings in five countries, including as the ambassador to Portugal from 2011 to 2014.

She’s married with two children, speaks five languages (English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese) and holds the CMG. Naturally.

Caroline Wilson – China

Wilson, 50, took up her role last year, after previous FCO jobs in Brussels and Moscow. Becoming the ambassador is a return to China, where she had her first overseas job at the British Embassy in the late 1990s.

She has been involved in very high-profile diplomacy in Asia, including the post-1997 handover of Hong Kong. She also has lots of experience working in Europe, including in the EU, when she drew on her Master’s degree in European Community law.

She is fluent in Mandarin and also speaks Russian. Fun fact: she is also a qualified barrister.

Wilson is not the first woman to hold the position: she took over from Dame Barbara Woodward (see below).

Dame Karen Pierce – US

Pierce, 61, took up the American post following the high-profile departure of Kim Darroch in 2019, after diplomatic cables he had sent describing the Trump government as “inept and insecure” were leaked. Pierce is the first woman to take up the role.

She joined the FCO in 1981, and has had postings in Japan, Ukraine, Belarus, the UN and Switzerland, among other countries. She was given a Damehood in the 2018 Birthday Honours.

She has two sons with her husband Charles Roxburgh – who also works for the civil service, within the Treasury.

Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque – Canada

Le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, 58, (pictured top) has been the British High Commissioner in Canada since 2017, after four years as the ambassador to Austria. The Austrian job came with additional duties – including being the UK’s representative to the UN in Vienna.

She has also worked all over the world, including in Singapore, Venezuela, Colombia, the US, and in head office in London. She is set to leave office in August 2021. If she is succeeded by a man, the brief spell of the all-female lead ambassadors will end.

She was appointed a CMG in 2010, and is married to a teacher, with whom she shares two children.

Dame Barbara Woodward – the UN in New York

Woodward, 59, is one of the UK’s highest-ranking diplomats given her role as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. She was not the first female ambassador to the UN – she took over from Dame Karen Pierce, who is now ambassador to the US.

However, she was the first female British ambassador to China, before being succeeded by Caroline Wilson.

She joined the FCO in 1994, and has worked across the world, including in the EU and Russia. Before joining the FCO, she was an English teacher in China.