Diplomacy is often regarded as a field dominated by men. The high mobility makes the diplomacy seem to be unproper field of women. However, the stigma is currently not fully applicable in the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sincethe current recruitment of young diplomats, in the ministry 50 percents of the diplomats are dominated by women. Even young female diplomats often reach the best positions in the education. This was stated by Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi recently.
"Regarding diplomacy and women, the issues have existed since 15 years ago. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, almost 50 percent of the new diplomats are women.We also educate fresh graduates from university to be diplomats. They havequite good ranking position. Mostly, seven from the top ten are women," Retno Marsudi said.
Furthermore, Minister Retno Marsudi also advised female diplomats to focus on making decisions, although the profession of a diplomat demand logical performance. According to the Minister, logic can be aligned with the heart while the diplomacy is not fully driven by logic. It takes the heart to get diplomacy since diplomacy is an art in conducting negotiation. (VOI/REZHA/Trs/Nada/AHM)