When US Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley was appointed the first female consul general in Saudi Arabia in 2002, she overheard male officials say in Arabic: “She’s a woman. Did they send her to punish us?”
“No, they sent the best and that’s me,” she had quipped.
Ms Abercrombie-Winstanley was speaking candidly about her personal experience as a diplomat at a seminar organised by the Malta Association of Women in Business.
As an African American woman, she formed part of a minority in a sector that was overwhelmingly dominated by white men.
“First of all, I am a happy woman,” she began.
You can have it all, just not at the same time
“I am married – two-thirds of people in the Foreign Service are not. Professional success must not come at the expense of happiness. The minute I stop loving what I do is the minute I leave the job,” she said.
She spoke of the tough choices a woman must make and the complexities of interweaving a successful career, marriage and children.
Ms Abercrombie-Winstanley who is a mother to two children said: “You can have it all, just not at the same time.”
She explained that when she first joined the Foreign Service in 1985, she was completely ignored. Sitting at a round table, none of the people around her bothered to make conversation with her.
She then served as consul in Baghdad at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, when Iranian missiles were hitting the Iraqi capital.
When serving in Cairo in 1989, she realised that she must have been doing her job well because her entire apartment was bugged to eavesdrop on her conversations.
When serving in Saudi Arabia, Ms Abercrombie-Winstanley grew accustomed to walking into a room where she was the only woman in the midst of 500 men.
“You get used to it. In fact, as an American woman, they treated me as an honorary man.”
She was supported by her mother, who moved in to help with the children and her husband, who was flexible enough to join her in her various posts around the world.
Her career meant that she often left her office after 11pm.
The nanny would sometimes bring Ms Abercrombie-Winstanley’s daughter to the office to share lunch as she was arriving home so late that the girl would be fast asleep.
“There are a number of mediocre men sitting at boards. I would say that when mediocre women get to those boards, that’s when we’re truly equal. In the meantime, be your best,” she concluded.
BOV’s chief financial officer, Elvia George, pointed out that, at 41 per cent, Malta had the second lowest female employment rate in the EU.
It paid to diversify, she emphasised. This led to a more equitable society and higher quality jobs, which was good for business and the economy.
A number of studies proved a direct correlation between women in the boardroom and better financial performance.
Companies who had a number of women on their boards scored higher than those who did not in such areas as organisational excellence, firm quality and innovation.
“Women have a higher spending power and tend to spend it differently.
“Diversity of talent is a dominant business issue,” Ms George said.