Mesdames Secretaries
As many of the world’s women foreign ministers gather in Montreal, OpenCanada’s Catherine Tsalikis examines the power of sisterhood, shared stories and small numbers to spur on change.
By the time she was appointed Canada’s foreign minister in 1991, Barbara McDougall had spent most of her professional life — which included positions as minister of state for finance, privatization, and employment and immigration, among others — being the only woman in the room.
The years she spent as Canada’s top diplomat — and as the second woman ever to hold the role — were no exception. Now, at 80, she finds most of her recollections about her time at External Affairs, as the department was then called, have little to do with gender, and more to do with overseeing Canada’s foreign policy as the Soviet Union collapsed, the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa and the outbreak of war in the Balkans.
All the same, there were “funny little things” that happened to women, but not men, she recalled one recent afternoon, in the living room of her home in Toronto.
She remembers attending her first NATO foreign ministers’ conference in Europe and being the only female representative. That particular morning’s meeting had ended, and ministers were walking “fairly casually” toward the spot for the traditional family photo.
Nobody seemed to be in a hurry, so McDougall took the opportunity to duck into a nearby washroom, to comb her hair and put on some lipstick. When she re-emerged moments later, she was astounded. “By the time I came out, the photo was over,” she says, still incredulous to this day. “I mean, don’t these guys ever comb their hair?”
“By that stage of my life, I had the good sense to say, ‘Hey you guys, hello! We’re not finished yet.’” The photo was retaken.
Despite being the one minister in a skirt in a sea of suits at NATO conferences, McDougall says at the time it didn’t feel revolutionary to be a woman in the position of Canada’s secretary of state for external affairs, dodging bullets in Sarajevo and visiting Moscow every January as the Cold War melted away.
“I just got on with it,” she says, as she did while in other Cabinet positions — with a little help from her female colleagues.
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