From inside the Office of Global Women’s Issues

Jun 30th, 2010 4:17 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

Over at DipNote, Lizzie O’Rourke– a Foreign Service Officer– has a great look at her time working in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues.

Here’s an excerpt:

I didn’t plan to get involved with the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI) — I was just lucky. As a new Foreign Service Officer, I was assigned to a period of training following my swearing-in. For many new FSOs there are some extra days between the completion of initial training and departure for post. When that happens, our Career Development Office assigns us to offices at the State Department for on-the-job training (OJT) — short-term stints that let us learn about the domestic workings of the Department before heading overseas. I received my OJT assignment prior to wrapping up my initial training, and started at S/GWI right after my training finished.

At first, I didn’t know much about S/GWI’s mission, and my lack of previous involvement with women’s studies or gender issues made me wonder if I would be at a disadvantage. I soon realized, however, that this was not the case: the fast-moving pace of this office carried me with it, and I was quickly immersed in variety of projects. Part of that was due to the timing of my assignment, which could not have been better: I was assigned to the office in March, which is Women’s History Month. March 8th is International Women’s Day, a holiday our office celebrates with the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Awards.

Preparations for the IWOC Awards program required some unexpected tasks — most memorably, the chance to meet briefly with the First Lady — and long hours. Yet nothing prepared me for the moment when the ten awardees shared their stories at a S/GWI-sponsored public forum, where they spoke frankly of their past struggles, which for some included imprisonment and torture. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time with them throughout the events; any language barriers were quickly broken by smiles, and eventually, hugs.

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