Highest-ranking woman in NATO history points to stigma, misogyny in diplomacy

By Gulcin Kazan Doger

ISTANBUL (AA) - Women continue to face stigma and misogyny in diplomacy, Rose Gottemoeller, the highest-ranking woman in the history of NATO, told Anadolu on Friday in an interview.

"When young women asked me how they can succeed in their field, I say it may be unfair, but you have to be not only as good as the men, you have to be better, you have to be an expert in whatever your area of specialty is," she said in a video interview.

"And you really have to show that you know that topic inside and out," added Gottemoeller, who served as NATO deputy secretary-general between 2016 and 2019.

Speaking on the occasion of the June 24 International Day of Women in Diplomacy, Gottemoeller said that she is "proud and glad to have that opportunity" to work as a woman in the male-dominated field of diplomacy.

"Seven days as I did experience misogyny, experience a kind of notion that you can't possibly do it because you're a woman," Gottemoeller, who currently teaches at Stanford University, also said in reference to the intense stigmas women continue to face.

The former NATO official said she focused on nuclear weapons policy, arms control and non-proliferation in her career.

She also mentioned an incident in which she experienced open sexism.

"I cannot say it was easy at first when I first came into NATO," she said, remembering a "crusty, crusty senior expert" who had been at NATO for some time.

"And in one of our early meetings, I mentioned something about nuclear weapons policy. And he came up to me after the meeting and said, 'Wow, for a woman you really know a lot about nuclear weapons policy.' So I had to laugh," she concluded.