{"id":5299,"date":"2006-05-06T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2006-05-06T21:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2006\/05\/06\/madeleine-the-georgetown-mafi"},"modified":"2012-06-13T09:47:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T13:47:20","slug":"madeleine-the-georgetown-mafia-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2006\/05\/06\/madeleine-the-georgetown-mafia-and-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Madeleine, the Georgetown Mafia, and Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the remarkable change <\/span><\/div>\n

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in the role of women in the realm of diplomacy and international relations, <\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

since I entered college in 1967, at Georgetown University’s Edmund A.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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Walsh\u00a0School of Foreign Service<\/span><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n
\n
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\"AlbrightAlmighty\"<\/span><\/div>\n
The Mighty and the Almighty<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

My musing was touched off by Madeleine Albright’s <\/span>appearance\u00a0on the\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charlie Rose Show<\/em><\/span><\/a> on May 3, 2006\u00a0(guest host Andrea <\/span><\/span>Mitchell; $.99 <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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video download<\/span><\/a> from Google.com). Albright was touting her <\/span><\/span>just-released <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

book, <\/span>The Mighty and the Almighty<\/em><\/span><\/a>:\u00a0Reflections on America, <\/em><\/span><\/span>God and\u00a0<\/span><\/span>World <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/div>\n

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Affairs<\/em>.\u00a0More musing was sparked yesterday, when I heard that British P.M. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Tony\u00a0Blair <\/span>had <\/span>named Margaret Beckett<\/a> Britain’s first woman\u00a0Foreign S<\/span>ecretary<\/span><\/div>\n

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(BBC <\/span><\/a><\/em>profile<\/span><\/a><\/em>, <\/span>May 5, 2006).<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State, mentioned that gender did not <\/span><\/div>\n

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seem at all relevant when <\/span>Condoleeza Rice<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was named as President Bush’s top\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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security\u00a0advisor, nor when she was elevated to Secretary of State in 2005.\u00a0 She <\/span><\/div>\n

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then\u00a0noted that the State Department now had so many women\u00a0in important staff <\/span><\/div>\n

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and policy positions, who have been educated at\u00a0Georgetown, that they\u00a0are called<\/span><\/div>\n

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the “Georgetown Mafia<\/em>” within the Department. [Albright used the phrase\u00a0to close <\/span><\/div>\n

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a commencement <\/span>speech<\/span><\/a> at Georgetown in 1999: “the best of luck and come to <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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the Foreign Service and<\/span> join the Georgetown Mafia.”]<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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Read on\u00a0for the\u00a0tale of how a Georgetown Mafia came about.\u00a0 Let’s look at <\/span><\/div>\n

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Albright’s path and my own:<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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\"AlbrightMug\"<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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In 1963, Madeleine Albright gave birth to twins girls (Anne and Alice) and, in 1967,<\/span><\/div>\n

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her third daughter (Katharine) was born.\u00a0 For the next eight years, she was very <\/span><\/div>\n

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busy working on a doctorate from Columbia University (awarded in 1976), while <\/span><\/div>\n

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raising <\/span>her children, serving on the board (and then as the first woman Chairman) <\/span><\/div>\n

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of the <\/span>Beauvior School and working on the Muskie and Mondale presidential cam-<\/span><\/div>\n

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paigns.\u00a0 From 1976 to 1978, she served as Chief Legislative Assistant to Senator <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Edmund S. Muskie, and then left to take a staff position at the National Security <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Council.<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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In 1982, Albright came to Georgetown to teach.\u00a0 In Madam Secretary : A Memoir<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

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(2003)<\/span><\/span>, she explains [at 99 – 100]:<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n
“My charge at Georgetown was threefold: teach, create the Donner <\/span><\/div>\n
women’s program [established “to encourage women to enter interna-<\/span><\/div>\n
tional relations”], and serve as a role model for the young women there.<\/span><\/div>\n
I believed that if women were to compete with men in the international <\/span><\/div>\n
arena, they needed to receive an education that prepared them for every <\/span><\/div>\n
challenge, including those no woman had faced before.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

In contrast, here’s my tale for the same time period:<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n
1963 – 1967\u00a0 newspaper carrier, high school student<\/span><\/div>\n
1967 to 1971\u00a0 student at GU School of Foreign Service <\/span><\/div>\n
1973 – 1976\u00a0 law student<\/span><\/div>\n
thereafter<\/em> — practiced law for 20 years, with no international <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 relations subject matter; <\/span><\/div>\n
currently <\/em>— occasionally offer amateur punditry on international <\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 affairs issues; still wish there were more women around<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Back to the issue of gender and international affairs:\u00a0 When I headed off to <\/span><\/div>\n

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Washington, D.C., in early September, 1967, I had all the usual hopes and <\/span><\/div>\n

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worries of a college freshman.\u00a0 One thing seemed strange about the SFS:<\/span><\/div>\n

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only 20 of the 220 freshman were female.\u00a0 For a guy who was shy in the <\/span><\/div>\n

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dating depatment that was not a good sign. <\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 DAG71g<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 dagosan 1971<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Things moved rapidly at that time.\u00a0 With the Vietnam War becoming a <\/span>very <\/span><\/div>\n

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hotly disputed issue, many classmates found ourselves disillusioned with the <\/span><\/div>\n

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whole <\/span>notion of — in the words of the SFS catalogue — “promoting and protecting <\/span><\/div>\n

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the\u00a0nation’s international interests” through foreign service.\u00a0 (see Washington <\/em><\/span>Post<\/em>, <\/span><\/div>\n

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“GU Foreign Service School Seeks Identity,” March 24, 1970, which <\/span>noted a 21 <\/span><\/div>\n

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percent drop in applications to SFS\u00a0in the past year, and quoted an idealist 21-year–<\/span><\/div>\n

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old chap <\/span>named David Giacalone, who decried\u00a0the School\u00a0“making us agents of Amer-<\/span><\/div>\n

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ican <\/span>foreign <\/span>and economic policy” and hoped SFS graduates could go out into the <\/span><\/div>\n

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international realm as <\/span>“world <\/span>citizens.”)<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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Several agitators (on a rather conservative and apathetic campus) started to\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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seek more student input in course requirements and content.\u00a0 My own\u00a0inter-<\/span><\/div>\n

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est in broadening the notion of “international service” led me to run for <\/span>the <\/span>very <\/span><\/div>\n

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first elected student seat on the SFS Executive Committee, which was the <\/span>School’s <\/span><\/div>\n

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policy-making board.\u00a0[The first student on the Committee had been appointed the\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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prior year.]\u00a0 It was 1970. When I won (and I truly can’t remember if any one else <\/span><\/div>\n

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even wanted <\/span>the position), I found myself in the lofty company of all the depart<\/span>ment <\/span><\/div>\n

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heads, the <\/span>Dean, and a few other venerable faculty members.\u00a0 It was a bit <\/span>stressful, <\/span><\/div>\n

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especi<\/span>ally since none of the other Executive Committee members <\/span>looked like this<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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Luckily, my academic reputation was excellent, and my demeanor respectful,\u00a0and <\/span><\/div>\n

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there were some\u00a0friendly faces\u00a0on the Commit<\/span>tee, including the Dean.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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\"femaleSymN\"<\/span><\/div>\n

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By that time,\u00a0I had learned that the paucity of female SFS students was not<\/em> due <\/span><\/div>\n

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to a lack of applicants, but was caused by a quota — only 10% of the student body <\/span><\/div>\n

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was allowed to be female.\u00a0 (This was before federal laws banned such gender dis-<\/span><\/div>\n

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crimination.)\u00a0\u00a0 My first proposal\u00a0to the Executive Committee, therefore, was that <\/span><\/div>\n

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acceptance to the School be gender-neutral<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 The reaction from the “conservative” <\/span><\/div>\n

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and “traditionalist” members of the Committee (even a woman or two) was strong <\/span><\/div>\n

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and emphatic:<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n
“There are no jobs for women in the diplomatic field.\u00a0 (E.g<\/em>., <\/span><\/div>\n
Many <\/span>countries would not accept women in American diplo-<\/span><\/div>\n
matic <\/span>positions.)\u00a0 Therefore, it would be extremely unfair to <\/span><\/div>\n
young women <\/span>to hold out the false hope of careers in inter-<\/span><\/div>\n
national relations <\/span>by accepting them in large numbers to <\/span><\/div>\n
the School of Foreign Service.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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I literally cannot remember how the voting broke down (I never kept a diary\u00a0and <\/span><\/div>\n

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there were no personal computers, much less weblogs).\u00a0 Nor can I say\u00a0what argu-<\/span><\/div>\n

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ments <\/span>saved the day — although I’m betting the sharp dropoff in applications had\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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swayed a few\u00a0minds.\u00a0 Nonetheless,\u00a0my proposal was eventually adopted.\u00a0 The <\/span><\/div>\n

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oldest and <\/span>largest school of international relations in the nation would henceforth <\/span><\/div>\n

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have <\/span>a gender-neutral admissions policy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"femaleSym\" “malesym”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The change was not quick enough to help my social life.\u00a0 A decade later,<\/span><\/div>\n

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when Madeleine Albright came to the School of Foreign Service, <\/span>and created <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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the Donner Foundation to encourage women to enter the field, there was a<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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student body at the SFS that had a significant female presence, and a sizeable <\/span><\/div>\n

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cadre of well-educated women were ready to enter into the <\/span>foreign service<\/span>, and to<\/span><\/div>\n

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take public, private, and nonprofit positions <\/span>in the field of <\/span>international relations.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Yes, the change in admissions policy and in gender equality at the State Depart-<\/span><\/div>\n

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were certainly inevitable.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I’m proud to have played a part in helping <\/span><\/div>\n

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to lay the foundation for the Georgetown Mafia.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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If you educate them [and they take advantage of opportunities, work extremely hard, and\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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have mentors]\u00a0\u00a0they will thrive.\u00a0 An important notion for many aspects of <\/span><\/div>\n

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our often unjust and unfair world.<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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\"podium<\/span><\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

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afterthought <\/span><\/strong><\/em>(10 AM):\u00a0 You’ll have to decide for yourselves whether the following <\/span><\/div>\n

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excerpts from Albright’s Madam Secretary : A Memoir<\/em><\/span><\/a>\u00a0[at 100 – 101]\u00a0are — or should <\/span><\/div>\n

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be — analogously <\/span>applicable <\/span>to the legal profession in the 21st Century:<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n
<\/div>\n
“I taught classes on international affairs to women and men, drawing <\/span><\/div>\n
on what I had learned in the Carter White House. . . . I had female<\/span><\/div>\n
students play roles they wouldn’t have had at that time in government <\/span><\/div>\n
and had male students report to them.\u00a0 I invited women professionals to <\/span><\/div>\n
discuss their varied and jagged career patterns to illustrate that the shor-<\/span><\/div>\n
test distance between two points might not be a straight line.” . . .<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I discussed the difficult choices women face and implored my students <\/span><\/div>\n
not to let others see the chips that might have settled on their shoulders — <\/span><\/div>\n
especially during job interviews.\u00a0 I spoke with passion about how women <\/span><\/div>\n
must make sure not to push the ladder of success away from the building <\/span><\/div>\n
after they have climbed to the top but must help each other succeed.”<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
[Ed. Note<\/em>:\u00a0 Is Albright being too hard on herself when she adds:]\u00a0\u00a0 \"podiumS\"<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I was confident about the logic of all this, but my shift in marital status <\/span><\/div>\n
[with her divorce finalized] had in my own mind made me lose credibility. <\/span><\/div>\n
When my students asked how I had managed to be married and have <\/span><\/div>\n
children and work at the same time, I felt like a phony because I hadn’t<\/span><\/div>\n
succeeded.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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p.s.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0 If anyone reading this post has further details (or any corrections) on the topic <\/span><\/div>\n

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of SFS’s admission quotas or goals concerning women, please let me know.<\/span><\/div>\n

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\n
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fund drive<\/span><\/div>\n
the ivy covered building<\/span><\/div>\n
has a new name<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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new dean<\/span><\/div>\n
all blackboards <\/span><\/div>\n
turn white <\/span><\/div>\n
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windowless classroom<\/span><\/div>\n
the blank look<\/span><\/div>\n
same as last term<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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around and around <\/span><\/div>\n
learning the names <\/span><\/div>\n
of one way streets<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
winfow box — <\/span><\/div>\n
between flowering pansies<\/span><\/div>\n
my daughter’s face<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n
Yu Chang<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0– Upstate Dim Sum<\/span><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"femaleSym\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the remarkable change   in the role of women in the realm of diplomacy and international relations,   since I entered college in 1967, at Georgetown University’s Edmund A.\u00a0   Walsh\u00a0School of Foreign Service.\u00a0 The Mighty and the Almighty   My musing was touched off by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1nt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14381,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5299\/revisions\/14381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}