8th March 2013
Women in the Foreign Office: Ambassador to Denmark
To mark International Women’s Day, we are featuring the stories of women who work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office across our social networks.
Vivien Life is the Ambassador to Denmark – she writes about the impressive number of women in Danish politics, bonding over making coffee and the benefits of understanding the concept of ‘hygge’.
Although I am writing this blog to coincide with international women’s day, I learned in my early days in this job that the fact that I am a female ambassador here in Denmark is the least interesting thing about me. But it does make the job even more fun.
Foolishly, when I was selected I thought I was going to be the first woman British Ambassador to Denmark, because there hadn’t been one during my time in the FCO. But I quickly discovered I had a female predecessor, Dame Anne Warburton, 1976-1983, who was the first ever female ambassador appointed by the UK. So I couldn’t claim that title.
Nevertheless, thirty years on, my press team tried to make something of the exciting news of the arrival of a female British ambassador. But they didn’t have much luck with that angle: there are around 16 other women ambassadors here, including, when I arrived both the US and French ambassadors and my very impressive Mexican colleague who is the longest serving ambassador here. And my Danish opposite number in London is also a woman.
I did get some good press coverage, but the angle was that I’d learned Danish and understood the Danish concept of hygge, not my gender.
That doesn’t mean I’m above using my gender where it helps.
The other women ambassadors had already established a strong and supportive network I could plug into. But my job here is to get to know Danes. And there are a lot of women in Danish politics.
Not only is the Prime Minister a woman, the other two parties in the coalition are led by women and it does give me a warm feeling to see three strong women on the stage together. Everyone here has been open and welcoming, but I like to think it’s even easier to forge a link making a cup of coffee in the kitchen together with another woman, as I did with one of my MP contacts.
Surprisingly, the picture in business is very different.
It may in part reflect the close networks at the top of a much smaller business population. I had an interesting debate about this with Manu Sareen, the minister for gender equality and I know he wants to find ways to address it. But I couldn’t help but be struck again this week, speaking to an impressively diverse business delegation from the West Midlands at the prestigious Chamber of Commerce building, that the only women I could see among the grand portraits on the wall were nudes.
I look forward to seeing three women CEOs from top companies sharing a stage. That would be news.