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Plus: The "firsts" to hold "the most prominent [positions] in the diplomatic service”; And: revisiting dueling profiles of diplomat Eleanor Hicks
The first woman to represent her storied nation as ambassador to the United States — “the most prominent [position] in the diplomatic service” — epitomized the best in her country. Her rise represented a cumulation of incremental gains for women in the capital city. It took centuries, but today nearly 35 percent of the legislative body is made up of women, an all-time high.
She had dreamed of a career like this since she was 12 and saw a photo of diplomat Eleanor Hicks, one of the few Black women to have served in a leadership role abroad for the U.S. State Department in the early 1970s.
And now, in 2020, Karen Pierce would serve as the United Kingdom’s first female envoy to the United States. Among those from whom she sought out advice was Roya Rahmani, who became Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the United States in 2018…
I wanted to begin with a little story because despite Afghanistan often being cast as the furthest behind in terms of women’s advancement, there continue to be many other female ambassadors — even for “first world,” “global powers” — who are the firsts in their own rights. It should be noted that Afghanistan named its second female ambassador, Adela Raz, in 2021.
And it’s in part because of my extensive conversations with Ambassador Raz that I came across Ambassador Pierce’s own origin story. The two worked closely together while previously serving as ambassadors to the United Nations (also a first for both countries). To read more about the purpose of the time I’ve been spending with Ambassador Raz, please check out: The Stateswomen of Afghanistan.
It wasn’t until I read about Pierce’s early inspirations that I came across the name Eleanor Hicks, a remarkable diplomat whose story is frustratingly hard to find. In searching for a deeper glimpse into who she was and what she believed, I came across two New York Times profiles, the first from 1975 and the second from three years earlier. The former, written by C.L. Sulzberger with the headline: “The Striped-Pants Girls,” introduces Hicks as “an unusually attractive example of the new type of American diplomat.”
Sulzberger mulls over what he describes as the “little‐noticed revolution in American bureaucratic life,” which he calls “the swift emergence of the United States female diplomat.”
“This may not seem a sensational figure; yet it must be remembered there is no overwhelming pressure by women to enlist in such kind of work. Also, there are potential detractions as well as attractions involved, especially in terms of normal family life with a husband and children. Foreign Service careers demand continually shifting posts.”
The rest of the piece, which feels like it should be dated far earlier than 1975, zeroes in on Hicks through an appreciative lens that nevertheless plays up her charms in that particular way that only a male profile writer can. The choice gives the entire piece the undertone of a flirting encounter that undercuts so much of talent, skill and drive he seems to recognize in Hicks from the jump.
Flora Lewis wrote about Hicks three years earlier and while the piece still dwells on her marital status, there is substantial emphasis placed on her ambition, talent, and the work she’s doing: “she hopes next spring to succeed Consul Joseph Williams as principal officer the most equal among four equal consuls in the office here.” She also invites Hicks to reflect on how her upbringing shaped her career trajectory:
“Miss Hicks attributes her ease in the world to her parents’ teaching that “I can do anything anybody else can do, anything I want. I have no doubt I could make a career singing, writing or something else. But at the moment I'm enjoying this,” she said.
Of course, what really took my breath away was the headline: She's a ‘Triple Threat’ Who Feels at Home in the World.
At home in the world. A phrase I first heard during my very early years as a reporter when Mariane Pearl released a collection of the writings of her late husband, the Wall Street Journal journalist Danny Pearl. Danny’s world view, purpose and the work he left behind had a profound influence on me then and in all the years sense and was the foundational idea that I wanted to explore with the women you see profiled in this newsletter.
The enormous, beautiful and brutal privilege of writing a book that is due to my publisher at the end of the year has been all-consuming and yet these conversations are enlivening. Thank you for your patience over these last few months. Over the next few weeks, I will be in conversation with:
Tyra Beaman,vice consul in the Consular Section at the U.S. Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro
Amanda Zeidan,political officer at the U.S. Embassy in MoroccoMariya Ilyas,vice consul, U.S. Embassy DohaSama Habib,Foreign Service OfficerSharlina Hussain-Morgan, cultural attaché at U.S. Embassy, Dhaka, Bangladesh
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