ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the life and career of a Foreign Service Officer, Alison Palmer, as a means of examining changes in the participation of women in the United States Foreign Service. It offers three chronological arguments. The first addresses change in the participation of women in the US Foreign Service. To address why inequities persisted after women were admitted, the chapter argues that a system of gendered labor stratification developed at State Department in the second half of the twentieth century. The final argument engages with women officers' activism. Women officers faced discrimination, including sexual harassment, which worsened when Alison Palmer challenged the system. But Palmer was not alone in the battle. The chapter also argues that her activism provided what Joan Freeman has called "a radical flank" against which other women reformers' activities were viewed as more acceptable.
