exclaiming: ‘We’ve turned the Foreign Office into a matrimonial bureau!’ Indeed, wastage due to the marriage bar effectively paralysed the growth of a substantial cohort of talented pioneer women at the Foreign Office. Monica Milne and Cicely Ludlam both left after less than ten years of service. Margaret Anstee, mentioned above, highlighted the sheer folly of the bar: she resigned on marriage in 1952 before pursuing an extremely successful career that culminated in her becoming the UnderSecretary General of the United Nations between 1987 and 1993.
The Years of Missed Opportunity? 1960-1990 The 1960s was a revolutionary decade for British women. The Abortion Act and the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1967 both gave women unprecedented power and independence. The strike by women workers at the Dagenham Ford car factory in 1968, and which led directly to the Equal Pay Act in 1970, reflected shifting attitudes to gender, trade unionism and equality. Barbara Castle became the first female minister of state in 1965. The question for the Foreign Office was clear: in a changing British society, would it take action on the iniquity of its policy on women diplomats? In 1962, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan appointed Lord Plowden to chair a Committee ‘to review the purpose, structure and operation’ of Britain’s overseas representation. The Committee was all-male, but ‘received evidence from a number of women’s organisations’ in order to reflect on the position on women in the service. The main focus of the campaigners who spoke to Plowden was on ensuring equal rights to a career as their male counterparts.
% Women Recruited to Diplomatic Service Administrative Class in 1960s 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
In the three pages of his final report dedicated to ‘The Role of Women’, Lord Plowden began by denouncing the futility of the existing ten per cent cap on female recruits. Since it had never been necessary to impose the cap, he surmised, it would be pointless to maintain it. The number of female recruits had in fact reached fifteen per 20