Australia, explained.
Australia has a poor track record of appointing women to senior diplomatic posts (Getty Images)
Recent appointments of male envoys to London and Washington highlight persistent gender gaps at DFAT's highest level.
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Why are Australia’s top diplomatic jobs still for men only?Why are Australia’s top diplomatic jobs still for men only?
Australia recently appointed both a new High Commissioner to the UK and a new Ambassador to the US. It goes without saying that these top appointments could and should go to candidates of any gender. So why is it only men who have been deemed fit for these roles?
Australia has now had three female foreign secretaries and three female foreign ministers, so the failure to appoint any women ever to these top two roles seems out of step with the government's own commitments to gender equality and representing women. It’s also inconsistent with some of our most important counterparts internationally, the US and UK having both appointed women to lead arguably some of the biggest and most important posts worldwide (including across all UN Security Council Permanent Five states). Both the US and UK have appointed multiple women heads of mission to Australia – the UK five (including the incumbent) and the US, three. This hasn’t even just occurred recently – the US first appointed a woman to Australia in 1997 and the UK in 2005. Such appointments are not novel. Yet we haven’t reciprocated.
Regardless of the professional competencies and qualifications of the appointed men, which is not in question, a pattern exists and a question remains: where are the women? And if not now, when would have been a better time to crack this final glass ceiling in diplomacy?
DFAT has come a long way since first launching its Women in Leadership (WIL) Strategy under former Secretary Peter Varghese and former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in 2015. Women have now achieved parity in Head of Mission/Head of Post (HOM/HOP) roles. Women represent 59% of DFAT. Only a handful of foreign posts are yet to have a woman appointed to the top role. Female heads of mission have managed some of our most complex relationships (such as China) and served in countries whose governments have fraught relationships with women and gender equality (such as Afghanistan).
It is more important than ever to role-model equality on the world stage.
When the WIL strategy was launched, women were around a quarter of HOMs/HOPs, despite entering DFAT in equal numbers since the mid-1980s. Change to address this chronic under-representation of women was strongly advocated for and ultimately successful, with the department now being a leader not just in Australia but globally. As of 2025, women represent 51.5% of DFAT’s Senior Executive Service.
We haven’t seen a new WIL strategy since the WIL Refresh (2020-2025) expired at the end of last year, although DFAT’s new Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Strategy (IED) (2024-2027) does helpfully measure how many posts are yet to have women (in 2024, it was eight– a number that has since decreased). It also commits to “continue progress towards all posts having been led by a woman HOM/HOP”. It begs the question of how Australia can achieve this goal if it gives up two of the most critical recent opportunities?
Further, the Refresh promised to “better prepar[e] posts for the arrival of a first-female HOM.” Whether UK and US posts needed to be better prepared (or prepared at all) remains in question, although if we are “tracking the career pathways of our new cohort of female HOMs to see if women are advancing from leading smaller to bigger posts” – another goal of Refresh – we may have failed.
It is more important than ever to role-model equality on the world stage. This is something the foreign minister is no stranger to, having released Australia's new international gender equality strategy just after Trump's directive to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) regulations in January 2025. It showed Australia making a stand for values and principles that matter to us. While we should be careful to avoid sending women precipitously towards glass cliffs, there is a real need for more women on the world stage – with their representation linked to everything from better peace to better prosperity.
It also matters for the future of our foreign service. Australia's first women heads of mission are profiled in portraits in DFAT’s Portraits and Mirrors display in the department’s headquarters. This is a now-permanent exhibition designed to inspire women to “see themselves” in the mirror of any posts yet to be led by a woman. For junior and senior diplomats alike, it seems we missed the opportunity to reflect Australia back at itself.
About the author
Elise Stephenson
Elise Stephenson is a youth social entrepreneur and PhD Candidate from the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University, Brisbane.
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