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Envoys Extraordinary: Women
of the Canadian Foreign Service.
Margaret K. Weiers. Subject Headings:
Grades 10 and up / Ages 15 and up.
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excerpt:
Diplomacy is not a career for the faint-hearted. However, it can be an immensely satisfying one for a woman with a sense of adventure, a thick skin, a yen to travel and live in foreign countries, a desire to make a difference, and a gambler's instinct to beat the odds.
MARGARET WEIERS HAS WRITTEN a first-of-its-kind book recording the
stories of twenty-two female career officers in the Canadian Foreign
Service. Weiers has almost forty years of journalistic experience, and
her witty, precise style captures the struggles and victories of this
small but determined band of women, and fills an important chapter in
Canadian History.
Based on
interviews with many of the women themselves, and an extensive range of
articles, news stories, and books of political analysis, Envoys
Extraordinary chronicles the trials, resourcefulness in the face of
discrimination, and ultimate success of these women.
Until 1947, women
could not write the Foreign Service examination. Until, women could
only begin as clerks and secretaries and rose through the ranks only
through uncontestable ability. Witness Agnes McCloskey, who went from
obscure clerk to chief accountant in External Affairs, and wielded such
extensive power over budgets and expense accounts that she was both
feared and reviled for her parsimony.
Restrictions on
women in the foreign service keeping their jobs if they married persisted
until 1971, years after the practice had stopped in other government
departments. Nevertheless, eleven of the women Weiers profiles became
ambassadors, and two have been deputy ministers.
Although women
have established a firm beachhead in fields such as medicine and law,
External Affairs is still a male bastion. As in politics, where women
have succeeded as individuals, but not collectively, the odds are still
stacked heavily against women in the diplomatic corps.
Everyone would do
well to read these pages, in which much of Canada's history unfolds.
Weiers's conclusion is that for women, External Affairs is "Not for the
Faint of Heart."
Highly recommended.
Grace Shaw is a teacher at Vancouver Community College.
To order Envoys Extraordinary: Women of the Canadian Foreign Service. contact:
Dundurn Press
2181 Queen Street East
Suite 301
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M4E 1E5
email orders@dundurn.com
phone 416-698-0454
fax 416-698-1102
toll free Phone 1-800-391-1653 Fax 1-800-391-1656
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cmeditor@mts.net.
Copyright © 1996 the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364