Planning from an Equality Perspective

This week, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop organized by the Office of Gender Equality at the Ministry called "Toolkit for Planning with an Equality Perspective". It was conducted by Edith Olivares Ferreto, an expert on Social Anthropology, who spoke to us about how to incorporate a gender perspective into public policy planning exercises. Edith has worked with the Ministry of Social Development, the Mexican House of Representatives, UNDP, the National Institute for Women, and various state and local governments in Mexico on gender issues. The participants came from different administrative units within the Ministry and included both Foreign Service Officers as well as Ministry staff.

Staff participating in the workshop

The first section of this week-long workshop was geared towards bringing awareness to the participants about gender-related inequalities in their own workplace and personal lives. Many salient issues were mentioned, including vertical segregation, wage gaps, stereotype prevalence, uneven distribution of domestic duties, unequal access to professional, education, and economic opportunities, among many others. We also took a look at how the Mexican legal system has incorporated a gender perspective into the National Development Plan and learned that incorporating it into all public policy is one out of three cross-sectoral principles that each government agency must include in its strategic plan (the other two are democratizing productivity and modern government that is close to the people through transparency and accountability).

The second section of the workshop consisted of using the "Logical Framework Approach" to define a problem, its possible causes, and design policy alternatives that contribute towards its solution, while incorporating a gender perspective into the process. I worked in a team with three wonderful women, Bibiana, Karina, and Agustina. The problem we worked on was the under representation of non Foreign Service women in decision making posts at the Ministry Headquarters. Here's a look at the "problem tree" we used to map out causes and effects:

Quite complicated!

The workshop was one of many in a series that the Office of Gender Inequality organizes as part of an effort to address the many complex situations that arise as a result of a phenomenon that is present worldwide: gender inequality. By the end of 2014, the office had trained 204 staff members on different gender-related issues, and while much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. I was glad to be a part of this activity and will surely use the tools that I learned in the workshop during the rest of my professional and personal life. 

Gender Perspective!

Greetings from Mexico City!

Greetings from Mexico City! It is exciting to be spending the summer in this vibrant megalopolis. More than 20 million people live and breathe here, and I feel like I am at the center of it all. I very much enjoy my morning walk to work, which takes me past delicious juice and taco stands, shoe shining stations, the imposing main avenue, Paseo de la Reforma, and the beautiful Alameda Central Park, which sits right across from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, my home for the next weeks. On top of that, on Thursday, the Mexican sky sweetened my welcome with a solar halo, a beautiful rainbow-like phenomenon that forms a ring around the Sun when the clouds are very high.

The view from the office

It is now time to begin thinking about what is going on with women in the Mexican Foreign Service, but first, let me give you an overview of what the Foreign Service is and what it does. The Foreign Service is the oldest permanent civilian public service corps in the country. In 1821, barely a month after the victory over Spain in the war for independence, the new government created the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cancillería, and tasked the new diplomatic officers with achieving official recognition of the newborn nation by foreign governments. This was absolutely necessary for the consolidation of the national project. Over time, the principal objectives of the Cancillería evolved, but the spirit remains the same. Today, the Foreign Service is in charge of representing Mexico abroad and executing the country’s foreign policy in accordance to the principles established by the Constitution. 

The Cancillería building

(photo credit Grupo Reforma)

The activities that officers carry out include promoting and safeguarding the nation’s interests, protecting the rights of Mexican citizens abroad, promoting regional and global peace and international security, and facilitating Mexico’s economic and cultural insertion in the world stage. Currently, there are 1,110 active Foreign Service Officers serving in two branches of the Foreign Service: the diplomatic-consular (DC), and the technical-administrative (TA). DC officers execute foreign policy in Embassies and Consulates around the world. TA officers are in charge of administrative and IT duties that allow the whole structure to run smoothly. My work on this project will concentrate on the DC branch, because these officers, in conjunction with politically appointed officials, make the most important foreign policy recommendations and are in charge of key decisions. It is also in this branch that we can observe the gender-gap.

The diplomatic corps is organized in a similar way to the military. It is a hierarchical structure, where officers can rise from one rank to the next based on their performance. In the DC branch, the ranks begin at Diplomatic Attaché, go through Third, Second, and First Secretary, Counselor, and Minister, until they reach the rank of Ambassador. Currently, men occupy 72% of ambassadorships, 82% of Minister posts, and 74% of Counsellor posts. Those percentages drop steadily until they reach 62% of Third Secretaries. In all, 69% of Mexican DC diplomats are male and only 31% are female.

There are many probable reasons that may explain this, but for now, we can only hypothesize. The lives of diplomats seem glamorous, but they also present great professional and personal challenges for those who have embarked on that path. Moving often, having a family, learning to negotiate across cultural differences, and transitioning to a new set of objectives with each government change are some examples.  We will be going through each one during the coming weeks, and hopefully, arrive at an evidence-based answer about the different obstacles that men and women face when trying to advance in their diplomatic career. Let’s get started! 

Welcome to Diplomatic Magic!

Every two years,  over a thousand young men and women line up nervously outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. They are dressed professionally, gripping study guides and books, quietly sizing each other up. They are about to begin an application process for what many would consider to be the best job in the world. They want to become diplomats. 

Back in 2009, I was one of those hopeful applicants lining up to take the first of many examinations. I had always wanted to represent my country abroad, and had been trying to do it for years as a competitive swimmer. When I was in college, I painfully realized, after finishing third or fourth in yet another race, that my dream of representing Mexico at the Olympics was not going to come true. I looked for other ways to give back to my country, and diplomacy became my second dream. As a foreign service officer, I could represent the best that our country had to offer, but I could go even further; I could help Mexicans in trouble, contribute to finding solutions for global problems, and travel the world! I put all my effort into it and I achieved the dream! I became a proud diplomat on March 2010.

That's me on the day of my swearing in ceremony! I'm with Patricia Espinosa, only the second female Foreign Affairs Secretary in Mexican history.

Not surprisingly, the Ministry does not have a hard time recruiting talented men and women for this job. Even though the selection process is very difficult - applicants have to be tested on world cultural knowledge, English and Spanish grammar and writing, third language proficiency, and psychological aptitude - and only the best are selected, the Ministry is usually able to recruit men and women that are up to the challenge. However, through the years, a problem has emerged that the Ministry is currently trying to solve. Although men and women are entering the foreign service at the same rates, they are not progressing equally. As they move up through the ranks, the women are falling behind. The Ministry wants to design policies that can make the workplace more friendly to women and allow their careers to advance just like the ones of men diplomats. 

Thanks to the generous support of the Women and Public Policy Program’s Cultural Bridge Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, I’ll be spending the summer in Mexico City, working with the Ministry towards solving this puzzle. I am thrilled to be doing this work and hopefully I can have a positive impact on the lives of my fellow women diplomats. I look forward to sharing my progress through this blog!

Thanks WAPPP and Cultural Bridge Fellowship!