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At the end of every summer, the French diplomatic service summons all its ambassadors from around the world to Paris for a week of brainstorming and fine cuisine. Usually, the assembled crowd is monochrome, middle-aged and male. Since 2015, however, it has been marked by silk scarves and coloured jackets: in that year, nearly a third of the ambassadorial corps was made up of women, compared to 19% in Britain and 26% in the United States.
Indeed, France has transformed the place of female diplomats. Surely, this has not happened without an official push: a few years ago, in 2012, France decided to reserve a share of top public-service appointments for women, with a target of 40% by 2018.
Does a female ambassador change anything? Besides the pressing linguistic question of whether to call her Madame l’Ambassadrice (favoured by some younger diplomats) or Madame l’Ambassadeur (which some prefer in order to avoid being taken for an ambassador’s wife ), the answer may be: not all that much. Perhaps most importantly, a less male representation projects a less fusty national image at a time when soft power counts for ever more. In fact, feminisation seems to be part of a broader French effort to “renew our global diplomacy for the 21st century”, said Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, whose predecessor but one was a woman, Michèle Alliot-Marie.
No longer so male and stale. Internet: < www.economist.com> (adapted ).
Decide whether the statements below, concerning the ideas and the vocabulary of text, are right or wrong.
The mentioning of “fine cuisine” suggests that the French ambassadors were in Paris also to learn about French gastronomy, due to its relevance in French culture.
