Shifts in overall career patterns and the tendency towards dual career families:

Volumes have been written within the growing literature on the theory of management on the lines that vertically directed careers for life are a thing of the past and that the future lies in "portfolio careers" (e.g., Handy 1995; Grigg, 1997). Reading these texts you often end up with the impression of societies made up of modern Renaissance men and women, leading lives of utopian variety and flexibility. All this ought to be very good news for diplomatic spouses. Yet, unfortunately, in many ways this message filters through in rather negative ways to those within Diplomatic Services and often becomes translated into the experience of the transformation from a secure job for life into insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety as to how to live up to concepts such as performance pay. This growing insecurity exacerbates the urgency that is often felt for both partners in a marriage to keep up their careers. Yet, this can be difficult to achieve. For spouses, who frequently still suffer repeated rejections when they apply for jobs on the grounds that they have shifted around and changed jobs too often, the vision of a portfolio career utopia can seem a long way off. This was borne out in a recent Swiss survey (Schaller, 1995); against 60% of the respondents who worked before their first posting, only 16% worked on their return and only 22% were able to pursue their chosen professions. Concern over career prospects was also reflected in a study undertaken by the Austrians in 1992 (Wille-Romer, 1992); 75% of the respondents who had completed professional training were not exercising their professions.

In the meantime two main general trends are emerging. The first is towards dual career couples, with each partner having equal earning potential: in the case of the UK, 70% of couples have dual incomes (Family Resources Survey, Department of Social Security). A direct reflection of this is the second trend towards more women entering diplomatic services and of a resulting increase in the ratio of male to female spouses in our Associations (the overall percentage of males in all the EU Associations taken together is now 15%, rising to 37% in the case of Denmark; 25.5% in the case of the Netherlands, and 13% in that of the United Kingdom). The consequence of both these tendencies is that spouses, more than ever before, want not just jobs, but to pursue their careers. The growing ratio of male to female spouses represents its own challenges. Although it is popular to say that male and female spouses present the same problems and face the same challenges, I think the question is more complex. At present male spouses, and indeed couples, are far less prepared for the male partner to compromise his career prospects in order to follow his spouse round the world. In some countries, this is reflected in rising numbers of unaccompanied married officers at posts (statistics for this are provided in the Appendix). Male spouses also tend to feel less obliged to participate in the activities traditionally associated with diplomatic spousehood.

The need to take account of the whole family and the way in which this social category has itself changed is one which is gaining increasing prominence in personnel policies, in both the private and public sectors.

During the 1997 Conference of the European Union Foreign Affairs Spouses Association (EUFASA), the Dutch pointed out how partners play a greater role than ever before in Personnel Department policies. Why this need? First there is the reason of changing biographies: parents are living longer and needing care; children are remaining dependent for longer: one of the observations to emerge from the British Diplomatic Spouses Association’s (BDSA) AGM last year was that it is quite often once children have completed their education that they need the most support from parents, especially when jobs are scarce and the economic climate uncertain. Second, there are the changing social structures that surround families. In the EUFASA Conference, the Dutch also pointed to the trend that nation states in Europe are demanding more and more that people fall back on their own resources for supporting themselves and others when they are not actually earning money; one consequence of this is that personal pensions are becoming more and more indispensable if one wishes to avoid a penurious old age. Third, there are the choices which people make about how to live their lives. The resulting changes in family set-ups will inevitably force changes and greater flexibility in personnel policies, particularly when it comes to considering unmarried partners. Some countries do recognise unmarried partners as having the same rights as married ones when it comes to allowances (The Netherlands and Sweden accept both sexes, whilst the European Commission, Finland, Norway and France accept only heterosexual partners). It is also becoming increasing practice in the private sector to incorporate unmarried partners into packages providing for international assignments.

A further change, which might be a result of the relaxation of the rules in some Services which prohibited marriage to foreigners,(2)  is that there are increasing numbers of foreign born spouses within diplomatic services. In a questionnaire sent out by the BDSA this year,(3)  respondents were invited to suggest issues which they thought our Association should address in the future. Of those who made suggestions, the greatest proportion - 10% - mentioned the particular problems faced by foreign born spouses. In the case of the Austrian study, it was found that foreign-born spouses suffered particularly from lack of social recognition in Austria. Finally, of course, we must mention the seemingly ever-rising divorce rates.

Amongst the many changes which are taking place within diplomacy, the most relevant to spouses seem to be:

Multi-lateral diplomacy:

There are a number of ways in which this tendency within diplomacy affects the role of spouses. First is the muting of the importance placed upon the promotion of national identity characteristic of bilateral embassies, with all the symbolic and entertainment aspects of representation that go with this. Taking the example of the EU corps in Brussels, the whole promotion of the common European ideal tends, if anything, towards the suppression of national differences. This, plus the fact that officers work according to punishing schedules and tend to do business over lunches, means that spouses posted there find themselves free, if they wish, to participate only to a minimal extent in representational entertaining. In the case of the United Kingdom Permanent Representation there, it is popular to describe Brussels as "Whitehall with allowances." Whilst some spouses welcome this, others feel excluded, diminished and isolated.

At another level, the case of the European Union has fostered a significant development in the form of EUFASA. This yearly conference began in 1988 and is currently in the final stages of achieving a legal status as an association in its own right, with an aim to promoting joint action on the part of all Associations of the member states and that of the European Commission.

All the above trends represent a new rationality penetrating the way in which diplomacy is conducted, and a stripping down of superfluous expenses and unnecessary entertainment. This, again, of course affects spouses, insofar as it involves a reduction in some of the spheres of activity traditionally associated with their position and role at post.

This is a subtle and complicated topic, and details can not be entered into here. The question of the public service ethos question was raised in the recent conference on "Diplomacy - A Profession in Peril?" last year. One theme was the way in which many foreign services are importing private sector practices into their management policies and contracting out certain activities to the private sector. Yet, several speakers also expressed anxiety over putting at risk such qualities as loyalty, long term commitment and experience which are central to the continuing effectiveness of foreign services. In fact, in some Services, including the British, there are signs that loyalty and long term commitment are currently on the decline. Younger officers do not view entry into the Service as necessarily a career for life - particularly if this should involve a sacrifice of their spouses’ careers.