London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 12, 2025

New UK ambassador to France means women hold all key postings

New UK ambassador to France means women hold all key postings

Menna Rawlings is UK’s first female appointee to Paris role, joining women representing others in G7
Women are to hold UK ambassadorships in all the world’s key postings after the role in Paris was given to Menna Rawlings, the first female appointee in British history.

It means women will represent Boris Johnson’s government – which has otherwise been criticised for being “incredibly blokey” – in the six other countries in the G7 group of top industrialised nations.

UK ambassadors in Berlin, Tokyo, Washington, Canberra, Beijing, Paris, Rome, Moscow and the United Nations in New York, among other places, are all women.

Until 1946, the Foreign Office banned women from diplomacy and until 1973 it required them to resign if they married. A rule requiring female diplomats to return to the UK – without keeping the job open – if they had a child in post was abolished even later. The first married female ambassadors were not appointed until 1987, 12 years after Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative party.

Rawlings, who replaces the former chief of staff to David Cameron, Ed Llewellyn, has been preceded by 43 male British ambassadors in Paris. The former national security minister Dame Neville Jones quit the Foreign Office after she was passed over for the Paris appointment in 2006. Rawlings was previously high commissioner to Australia and later in charge of developing the “global Britain” concept.

Among other current senior female ambassadors are Dame Karen Pierce (Washington), Caroline Wilson (Beijing), Dame Barbara Woodward (UK envoy to the UN), Jill Gallard (Berlin), Deborah Bronnert (Moscow), Jill Morris (Rome) and Julia Longbottom (Tokyo).

Key Commonwealth postings include Victoria Treadell as high commissioner to Australia, Catriona Laing representing the UK in Nigeria and Susan Jane le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, who is UK high commissioner in Canada. Jane Marriott represents the UK in Kenya, identified by the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, this week as a key area for the UK in the future.

The Foreign Office says that in the past decade the number of female heads of mission has tripled from 22 to more than 60 but it has only really been in the past five years that the most senior jobs have been given to women.

The process of feminising the top of the department, advocated by the two previous permanent secretaries, Sir Simon Fraser and Lord McDonald, is made easier by the fact that most postings last on average four years, giving regular opportunity to redress the gender balance.

Among the arguments put to a Foreign Office commission in 1934 for women not working in the diplomatic service included the idea that many countries were so different from Britain that “it would be extremely difficult for a woman to make the contacts, which form a large part of the work of diplomacy”.

It was also claimed that the introduction of a female officer into the intimate life of missions abroad would present difficulties in that she might have to live alone, which would excite “undesirable comment”, or she might have to share government-owned accommodation with another junior officer, which would be embarrassing unless the other officer was also female. Some held that “the physical constitution of women is not such as to enable them to bear the strain of continuous overwork in hot and unhealthy climates”.

The Conservative party has yet to appoint a female foreign secretary. The only female foreign secretary has been Margaret Beckett, who was so surprised to be offered the job by Tony Blair in 2006 that she said she responded with the F-word.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
A 92-year-old woman, who felt she doesn't belong in a nursing home, escaped the death-camp by climbing a gate nearly 8 ft tall
French Journalist Acquitted in Controversial Case Involving Brigitte Macron
Elon Musk’s xAI Targets $200 Billion Valuation in New Fundraising Round
Kraft Heinz Considers Splitting Off Grocery Division Amid Strategic Review
Trump Proposes Supplying Arms to Ukraine Through NATO Allies
EU Proposes New Tax on Large Companies to Boost Budget
Trump Imposes 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports Amid Trade Tensions
Junior Doctors in the UK Prepare for Five-Day Strike Over Pay Disputes
US Opens First Rare Earth Mine in Over 70 Years in Wyoming
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
Bitcoin Reaches New Milestone of $116,000
Biden’s Doctor Pleads the Fifth to Avoid Self-Incrimination on President’s Medical Fitness
Grok Chatbot Faces International Backlash for Antisemitic Content
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
×