I stumbled across an article on the Financial Times site today entitled Britain’s first female diplomats. It talks about Cicely Mayhew, the first woman to join the British diplomatic service in 1947. The Foreign Office had fought for decades to keep "Mayhew’s kind" out, often going to great lengths to prove women unworthy. One ambassador said it was “unthinkable” for a diplomat to “produce babies”.
Marraige was banned - diplomats could be sent anywhere in the world at short notice, a condition deemed incompatible with married life. Afterall, what on earth would their husband do?
Women diplomats who left the service to marry were stripped of their pensions and given a dowry, amounting to a month’s salary for every year they had served. The marriage ban remained in place, and was rigorously enforced, until 1973.
This article reminded me of a book by Jewell Fenzi - Married to the Foreign Service, which takes a look at life as the Trailing Spouse in "the old days".
.Until the 1970's, the spouses of U.S. diplomats, virtually all of them female, were traditionally regarded as unpaid employees. Expected to perform countless social duties - and often enduring considerable hardship and even peril in the course of serving the nation...and of course her husband - spouses made significant contributions to foreign relations.
I recommend this as a read not only for female spouses, but also male spouses and ask that you compare our current environment and way of life to what Trailing Spouses had to endure not so long ago.
-- Jeff
