The Israeli Embassy in India boasts of an interesting achievement. It is female dominated. In fact, the entire political wing, right down from the deputy chief of mission, Maya Kadosh, is all female. The other departments, too, like the military and agriculture wings, are women dominated.
Celebrating this uniqueness, Kadosh recently hosted a small gathering, where the ambassador, Daniel Carmon, was not present, for obvious reasons. The best part about the female-dominated embassy is that it came about 'naturally' and not because of reservation. The staff often joke that the ambassador's tenure is likely to get over by this summer, and who knows, a woman could replace him!
Lutyen's Delhi has a fair smattering of women in diplomacy, starting with India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj herself. Swaraj is a good hostess, and not only for her Karva Chauth get-togethers.
She throws a grand party at the sprawling Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan lawns on International Women's Day, the guest list comprising women in governance and media. It's a bright, colourful lawn party, with a display of silks, chiffons and even denims. Last year, Swaraj, who was ailing, did not host the event. She is making up for the lost year with a bigger party this time around.
There are around a dozen women chiefs of mission in Delhi. This includes Australian High Commissioner Harinder Sidhu, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Chitra Wagiswara, Mexico's Ambassador Melba Pria and Finland's Nina Vaskunlahti. The Finnish Embassy, too, is female powered.
While the increasing number of female diplomats around the world is something to cheer about, specially on International Women's Day, the discussion at Kadosh's home did touch upon some interesting points.
In Israel, for instance, the number of women applying for jobs in the foreign service is on the rise; in some batches, the women even outnumbered the men. While female emancipation and all is good talk, the young diplomats wondered whether diplomacy was now being regarded as not-so lucrative by the men, and therefore the change in numbers.
Diplomacy, for all its trappings of power and glamour, is tough business. It entails postings away from home, and separation from the spouse, if both have equally demanding careers. The emoluments, the women wondered, were perhaps not worth the trouble for men, who saw more lucrative careers in the private sector, perhaps.
In India, diplomacy is still largely a male domain, despite Swaraj heading the ministry. Of the 900 diplomats in the service, only a smattering are female, though many have, in the past, held important posts. This includes Nirupama Rao, who was foreign secretary, and before that, ambassador to China and then the US.
India's first woman diplomat was C.B. Muthamma, who in 1970 went as ambassador to Hungary, becoming the first woman from the foreign service to be appointed ambassador. She later also served as India's ambassador to Ghana and the Netherlands.