Madam Ambassador? With only 11% women, Belgium is last in the world ranking
Is diplomacy a bastion of gender inequality in Belgium? A new S rankingsecurity is interested, among other things, in the place of women in diplomacy. It collected the data available for a total of countries in 2020.
The post of ambassador, the pinnacle of a diplomatic career, is one that gives prestige and visibility. The male tradition remains firmly anchored there. No country achieves gender equality, even if some approach it. But to find Belgium, you have to look at the bottom of the ranking.
11% women
With barely 11% of women among its body of ambassadors, our country has the worst result in the world, behind Kyrgyzstan and Chile. In contrast, the top of the class are Finland, Austria and Latvia.
All countries combined, only a quarter of the ambassadors were women Last year. On the other hand, they are much more present in the staff of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (47%). “The more visible and prestigious the position, the less women are present”, end of report.
Lack of data, lack of interest
The researchers also point out that data on the subject is lacking in many countries. For Belgium, we only know the proportion of ambassadors since 2019. “The lack of data is a result in itself”, retained the researchers. They note that, in all of their research on diplomacy and defense, statistics on ambassadors are the poorest.
For many countries, the issue of gender equality is not on the agenda. Among those who do not provide data on the matter, some have not been named any female ambassador. The table shows, for example, that this was the case for Saudi Arabia in 2018, whose data have not been updated since then.
Parity in 249 years!
Shecurity is moving forward to make projections: at the current rate, Finland and Australia would achieve gender parity among their ambassadors from 2022. For Belgium, the observation is, once again, cruel: if nothing changes, we will have to wait 249 years before achieving equality between men and women!
With a female minister at her head for the first time, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is nevertheless very active in the defense of women’s rights and gender equality on the international scene. He does not seem to have succeeded in applying this priority to himself, even though he does make diplomatic efforts for women to facilitate careers for women.
11 women recruited
During the last diplomatic competition, in 2020, more than half of the candidates were women. And yet, in the end, 11 women and 19 men were entered. Many candidates are said to have given up during the recruitment process, which is a long succession of tests and exams. Diplomats devote two-thirds of their careers to posts abroad, often very far from Belgium.