the Diplomacy of tomorrow | Theme feature
CLARA RICCARDI & GIULIA KAPPELIN CINGOLANI
is the future of diplomacy female? The Perspective put this very question to four women working associated with diplomatic cores. After centuries of male domination, women are breaking through the glass ceiling. But there is still much to do.
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n 1990 the feminist scholar Cynthia Enloe raised a question: “where are the women in foreign affairs?”. Almost thirty years later, as we witness an increasing number of women being appointed to powerful positions, her question may sound almost anachronistic. In the last four years, the Italian politician Federica Mogherini has been the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union. Sweden, under the lead of Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström, was the first country to adopt a feminist foreign policy. More recently, Ursula Von Der Leyen has been appointed as the Presidentelect of the European Commission.
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So, is the future looking brighter for women in diplomacy? To answer this question The Perspective has interviewed four women of power each in their own field: Annika Söder, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Sweden since 2014; Veronika Bard, currently the Swedish Ambassador to the UN in Geneva and the first woman to have been the Swedish Ambassador in Moscow, from 2012 to 2015; Karin Aggestam, author of Gendering Diplomacy and International Negotiation, a pathbreaking book in the field of gender, diplomacy and mediation. And finally, to get a southern European perspective on the topic, Laura Carpini, former Italian Ambassador and President of the Association of Italian Female Diplomats.