The Beginnings of Women’s Agency in Latvian Foreign Affairs: an Autobiographical Approach
The Beginnings of Women’s Agency in Latvian Foreign Affairs: an Autobiographical Approach

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to name and place women as active participants in foreign affairs and to offer a case study through the research of autobiographical documents. The Latvian Foreign Service from 1919 to 1940 had 575 paid women employees in civil service positions, both at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in diplomatic and consular missions abroad, but only 16 held the highest positions open to women at the time, namely the posts of secretaries, 1st and 2nd class, due to the domination of a patriarchal model in which women were given a subordinate role. The involvement of the Grosvalds family women in the foreign service presents an almost complete picture of women in Latvian foreign affairs in the first decade of its existence, and their autobiographical material is hitherto unrecognised, though essential and diverse, especially the diary of Margarēta Grosvalde. The autobiographical evidence, such as letters and diaries, adds an extra layer for research and allows observation of the foreign affairs scene through the gendered lenses of typist, secretary and envoy’s wife, something which had not been done before. The research presented in the article demonstrates conclusively that women were present in, not absent from, diplomacy in the era preceding their full inclusion in the national diplomatic service in the later twentieth century.

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