Ethan James
T
he year was 1958. The Iraqi government had just been overthrown and the Iraqi King had been killed. American families had been evacuated from Baghdad. The only people left were military personnel and single people working in the U.S. Embassy. Mitzi Ferris, a young woman from northern Wisconsin, had just been assigned to Baghdad for a two-year tour. When she got there tensions were high. Everything and everyone was under watch. “It was getting bloody. They had killed a number of Americans in the streets,” Ferris recalls. There was
a lot of uncertainty in the country. “Everyone was under tight security” (Ferris). Many people were fearful of what could happen. The small group of Americans working in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad had to stick together to stay safe. Ferris was an outlier in the workforce when she joined the Foreign Service in 1958. She grew up during a time where women were not expected to work. Most women got married, had children and stayed at home to raise them. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1960, only 37.7% of women were employed outside the home
while 83.3% of men were employed. Ferris was a pioneer for women in the workforce especially for the Foreign Service. “From 1961 to 1971, recruitment of women remained at 7% and the rate of promotion was slow” (“A More Representative Foreign Service”). Ferris was working long before it was expected of women. She is a world-wise retiree whose life was transformed by the Foreign Service. Mitzi Ferris grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin. Her childhood was rather quiet. She wasn’t very comfortable talking to others or meeting new people. She remembers, “I