Eliza Manningham-Buller

The Foreign Office’s long war on women

A review of Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat, by Helen McCarthy. Until the second half of the 20th century, female diplomacy meant wives and dresses

Gertrude Bell with Sir Percy Cox on a visit to Mesopotamia in 1917. ‘She was never actually a member of the Foreign Office; rather a semi-detached and useful wartime extra’. mansell/time&life pictures/getty images

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