Our nation’s top diplomat is the Secretary of State – the person charged with implementing the President’s foreign policy, strengthening diplomatic relations around the globe, and managing a large global workforce. From Thomas Jefferson to Antony Blinken today, the United States has had seventy-one Secretaries of State. Only three of them have been women: Madeleine Albright (1997-2001), Condoleezza Rice (2005-2009), and Hillary Clinton (2009-2013).
All three of these impressive women came from humble backgrounds and made indelible contributions to American diplomacy.
With her family, Secretary Albright was forced to flee her homeland of Czechoslovakia twice as a young child for political reasons during the 1930s and 1940s. They arrived in the U.S. in 1948 as refugees without many material belongings. Secretary Rice grew up in a middle-class African American family in segregated Birmingham, Alabama during the 1950s and 1960s when Jim Crow laws were still in effect. Secretary Clinton grew up in a middle-class suburb of Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s. Her father was a small-business owner and her mother had a very difficult childhood. All of their parents placed a premium on gaining an education. And all three women pursued interests in academia, government, and foreign policy.
Even before sharing the honor of being our nation’s top diplomat, the lives of these three women were linked. As an undergraduate, Secretary Rice was a student of Secretary Albright’s father, Josef Korbel, at the University of Denver (1973-1974). Secretary Albright advised Bill Clinton on foreign policy during his presidential campaign. After Clinton was elected, Albright served as his Ambassador to the United Nations (1993-1997), and as Secretary of State during his second term (1997-2001).
“Having been witness at a very young age to what happens when America plays only a passive role in world affairs, I used my position to work closely with allies and friends on every continent to build a united front in support of liberty and in opposition to the forces of intolerance, unbridled ambition, and hate.”
– Madeline Albright
In 1999, Secretary Albright played a key role in managing the U.S. response, through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to hostilities and atrocities that broke out in the Kosovo and Serbia regions due to Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal campaign against the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Leading up to and during the 78-day NATO bombing campaign, Secretary Albright closely coordinated strategic responses with her foreign minister counterparts from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada.
The Russians, though not a NATO member state, were also in close coordination with this group. Their constant communication not only resulted in a decisive resolution to the tragedy unfolding in the region, but also in a friendship based on a common belief in the importance of the alliance.
Secretary Albright was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 by President Barack Obama for her tireless efforts during the Kosovo crisis as well as her efforts to promote peace during her entire diplomatic career.
“I glanced up at the portrait of [Benjamin] Franklin. What would he have thought of this great-granddaughter of slaves and child of Jim Crow Birmingham pledging to defend the Constitution of the United States, which had infamously counted her ancestors “three-fifths” of a man? Somehow, I wanted to believe, Franklin would have liked history’s turn toward justice and taken my appointment in stride.”
– Condoleezza Rice, reflecting upon her swearing in ceremony
As part of her duty to manage the nation’s oldest cabinet agency, Secretary Rice implemented tenets of what she termed “Transformational Diplomacy” – a shift in how and where diplomacy is practiced. Diplomats would be more involved in transforming lives around the world and not just on reporting on the actions of their governments.
Transformational diplomacy included the establishment of American Presence Posts in areas outside of major capitals, a Critical Languages Initiative (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi), and required service at hardship posts in order to advance in rank in the foreign service.
In October 2008, after several years of negotiations and after several U.S. and Indian governmental bodies came to agreement, including the U.S. Congress, Secretary Rice and her negotiating team secured the final signatures on the U.S.-India Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (known as the 123 Agreement). The agreement allowed the exchange of peaceful nuclear technology with India and established a foundation for a 21st century strategic partnership between the two countries.
“Finally I kept returning to a simple idea: When your President asks you to serve, you should say yes. As much as I loved my work in the Senate and believed I had more to contribute there, he said he needed me in the State Department. My father…and my mother instilled in me a deep sense of duty and service…”
– Hillary Clinton
In all of her public roles, Secretary Clinton vigorously defended human rights at home and abroad. She created the Office of Global Women’s Issues to advance international initiatives benefiting women and girls. She advocated for LGBTQ rights worldwide and also within the Department of State’s workforce. In 2009, she announced that same-sex partners of U.S. diplomats would be eligible for the same benefits as their diplomat partner. And in 2010, Clinton added gender identity to the Department of State’s equal employment opportunity statement.
In a December 2011 landmark speech at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Clinton unequivocally declared that justice and equality for LGBTQ individuals is a basic human right that must be protected. Evoking the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, she affirmed the United States’ defense of LGBTQ people and promotion of issues affecting them as matters of U.S. foreign policy.
Secretaries Albright, Rice, and Clinton all made important diplomatic achievements during their tenures, and all referred to their own service as a high honor in later reflections of their time as Secretary of State. Their skill, determination, and dedication have set a high standard for those who follow in their footsteps.
The National Museum of American Diplomacy (NMAD) is celebrating women in diplomacy – Her Diplomacy – women who have blazed trails, negotiated peace, served alongside their partners, strengthened diplomatic relations, survived dangers, and opened doors for sharing of cultures and ideas. They have made vital contributions to our nation, but their stories remain largely unknown. Discover more of these dedicated women and their stories:
Story of Diplomacy
Foreign Service Officer Eileen Malloy was one of the few female diplomats working on arms control issues in the late 1980s. As chief of the arms control unit at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, she travelled to Kazakhstan in 1990 to observe the destruction of some of the last intermediate-range nuclear missiles…
Story of Diplomacy
Ruth Kurzbauer cultivated new relationships in China in the 1980s and early 1990s when official diplomatic relations were still emerging. Her cultural curiosity and enthusiasm opened doors and built trust among her Chinese counterparts and local citizens, paving the way for diplomats who followed her.
Story of Diplomacy
Sylvia Blake is a daughter, sister, wife, and mother of Foreign Service Officers who also served as U.S. ambassadors. She is the matriarch of a family dedicated to public service and a woman who has her own legacy as a vital member of a Foreign Service family.
