Diplomatic Wives: The Politics of Domesticity and the "Social Game" in the U.S. Foreign Service, 1905-1941

Abstract

In the first half of the twentieth century, U.S. Foreign Service officers and State Department officials understood that marriage generally enhanced an officer's career and served American foreign policy needs. At the same time, many American Foreign Service wives also spoke explicitly about their "careers" in the Foreign Service, understanding that their work as wives, mothers, hostesses, homemakers, and role models gave them considerable influence as informal representatives of the U.S. government. By looking specifically at the domestic presence of American Foreign Service wives overseas we can see the ways in which gender helped to define the conduct of American diplomacy at a time when the United States's interests were expanding rapidly around the globe. By managing an American officer's home, family, and social responsibilities, the wife played a crucial role in presenting, and representing, the United States to the rest of the world.

Work and Family Balance in Top Diplomacy: The Case of the Czech Republic

“…Even though foreign services counted on the logistical and representational work of diplomatic wives, they were hardly credited for their contributions (McCarthy 2014). Nevertheless, most diplomatic wives regarded themselves as associates rather than “helpmates” (a term used by U.S. State Department employees)—they viewed their experience as a “career” in itself, and often referred to “we” when talking about their experiences in missions (Wood 2005, 2, 3; Wood 2007). The first generation of diplomatic wives often had little professional choice other than contributing to their husbands’ work while taking on their rank and status, a role that researchers have called “parallel careers” (Hendry 1998) or “two persons, single career” (Pavalko and Elder 1994).…”

“…Moreover, their careers were further limited by the “marriage bar,” 5 forcing women to choose between family and career (e.g., Farias de Souza and do Carmo 2018; Flowers 2018; Niklasson and Robertson 2018; Rumelili and Suleymanoglu-Kurum 2018). Interestingly, one of the arguments used in favor of this policy was that diplomatic husbands would be harder to control and less loyal to the service than diplomatic wives (Wood 2005).…”

“…Based on the overview provided by Aggestam and Towns (2019), there are three main fields of gender research that could contribute to the transformation of diplomacy. The most developed literature concerns diplomatic history, analyzing the informal involvement of women in diplomacy (e.g., Hendry 1998) and their struggle to access formal diplomacy in the twentieth century (e.g., Wood 2005). The second field maps the current representation and positioning of women in diplomacy and confirms an absolute male overrepresentation in this field, where women occupy less prestigious posts (Towns and Niklasson 2017).…”