Wong’s century: A closer look at gender mix in Australia’s top diplomatic roles

Female representation is near its highest. But some posts appear more equal than others.

Daniel Flitton

14 August 20245 min read

Penny Wong will score a century soon – the next person she appoints to be an Australian ambassador, high commissioner or consul-general will be the 100th since she became Australia’s foreign minister.

Tallying up these appointments to calculate a gender ratio generates some striking facts about Australia’s top envoys. Wong’s record is close to parity. Of 99 appointments made public, it’s 45 women, 54 men. Three more positions have been approved by the Federal Executive Council but not yet announced.

The total doesn’t tell the full story, however.

A breakdown of the numbers also shows that men have landed each of the big, prestigious postings. Most have been led previously by a woman at some point in recent years – but not all.

Wong has accelerated a trend of increasing the overall number of women in charge of Australia’s missions overseas, a push that took off during the era of Julie Bishop and Marise Payne. The Lowy Institute Diplomat Database, published in 2021, found 40 per cent of Australia’s top overseas representation was female. The latest Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade annual report revealed that by the middle of last year the rate had jumped to 52 per cent. Turnover since leaves the present figure in the overseas network at 49 per cent. This is an extraordinary result achieved inside a few years, given that in 2016 the number had languished below 25 per cent for much of the preceding decade. Before that, the ratio was far lower.

The gender split tells an interesting story when carefully parsed. I’ve updated the numbers from the earlier research by scouring Wong’s press releases for appointments made since 2022, when she was sworn in.

The appointments under Wong point to some cracks on the surface of the glass, but no shattering yet.

To head of mission roles in foreign capitals where Australia is represented, Wong has appointed 38 men and 29 women. For consul-general jobs, those big commercial centres or tourist hotspots where Australia has a post, it’s 10 men, 9 women. And for the thematic areas – the roving ambassador gigs or representatives at multilateral institutions – the division is 6 men, 7 women.

The tally becomes even more interesting when ranked against the most important postings. Judging the relationships or areas that matter most to Australia will always have a subjective flavour. But let’s borrow the “six + two + N” formula adopted by former DFAT secretary Peter Varghese to describe Australia’s foreign-policy priorities.

The “six” in the formula represents key countries: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. In Wong’s time, five of those positions have fallen vacant. Each has gone to a male. The one yet to change is Indonesia, where career officer Penny Williams is Australia’s incumbent, appointed in 2021 under the previous government.

Opportunity is clearly growing. Other than in Washington, each of these posts has had at least one female in the job previously.

Then and now: An early meeting of the UN Security Council in 1946, compared to one of the most recent (Photos: Marcel Bolomey and Loey Felipe/UN Photo)

The “two” in Varghese’s formula are the East Asia Summit and the Group of 20, neither of which has an ambassadorial gig attached. But the core of the East Asia Summit is ASEAN, where Australia does have an ambassador, and that job went to career officer Tiffany McDonald. And while Australia doesn’t have a G20 representative, it does have a “Sherpa”, former Treasury official and now PM&C First Assistant Secretary Angelia Grant.

The “N” in the Varghese formula stands for neighbourhood, with Pacific Islands nations the focus. Wong has appointed men to the two largest Pacific countries, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. Former Office of the Pacific chief Ewen McDonald in Suva doubles as Australia’s first Special Envoy for the Pacific and Regional Affairs. Solomon Islands, which during the RAMSI years was one of Australia’s largest missions, also went to a male. Again, each post has had at least one woman in the role previously, Solomon Islands last in 1993, PNG in 2015, and Fiji in 2017 the last of three times.

The other 11 appointments across the Pacific during Wong’s time have seen a roughly even split – 6 males, 7 females.

Another way of measuring importance is to expand the list of priority relationships to include each of the other Five Eyes countries.

Adding to ex-PM Kevin Rudd’s position in the United States, Wong sent former ministerial colleague Stephen Smith to the United Kingdom. Like the ambassadorial position in Washington, no woman has ever been appointed to Australia House in London (Lynette Wood was acting high commissioner from May 2022 to January 2023). Wong is expected to soon decide who will replace former Liberal senator Scott Ryan in Ottawa, despatched by the previous government. The sole woman among this group is career officer Harinder Sidhu, who Payne sent as High Commissioner to New Zealand in 2022.

The stature attached to the job is the chance to represent Australia overseas.

The “glass curtain” is a longstanding complaint common in both academic studies of international relations as well as in practice – men tend to dominate the “hard” areas of defence and security, whereas women are partitioned to issues such as human rights and development. The appointments under Wong to thematic areas and multilateral missions continue to show cracks on the surface of the glass, but debates are likely to continue about shattering it.

The UN headquarters role went to a male, as did the posting to the World Trade Organisation. APEC, female. The jobs of ambassador for gender equality as well as human rights both went to women, as did the ones for people smuggling and arms control. Counter-terrorism, male. Cyber, male. Health, male. First nations, a new role, male. UNESCO, female.

Worth noting too are the non-ambassadorial jobs Wong has appointed. Kerri Hartland as Director-General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, for example. Wendy Umberger as CEO of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, which sits in the foreign affairs portfolio. Wong also nominated Hilary Charlesworth for re-election to the International Court of Justice. And, of course, Wong started out by replacing one female secretary of the department with another.

DFAT itself boasts near gender parity for Senior Executive Service positions. This reflects more women gaining experience at the highest levels, a shift from years past. But for an organisation where women comprise a majority of the workforce and the stature attached to the job is the chance to represent Australia overseas, the challenge is more than equal numbers – it’s about ensuring an equal shot everywhere.

About the author

Daniel Flitton

Daniel Flitton is one of Australia’s most experienced foreign affairs journalists and is Managing Editor of the Lowy Institute’s international magazine, The Interpreter.

Topics

Australia Diplomacy Gender & equality