Women in diplomacy

What role do women play in diplomacy nowadays? Joanna Gulbińska talks to the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland – Barbara Tuge-Erecińska who comes across many positive opinions about Poles, talks about the beginning of her career and describes the feeling of leading one of the most important Polish diplomacy offices in the world.

What is the role of an Ambassador overseas? 

BTE: Briefly, the role of an Ambassador is to make the Polish flag to be proudly presented in the country of operation, to let Polish presence be recognised and to represent the country in the best possible way. The Ambassador has to look after Polish business in political dialogue and during important discussions on foreign affairs and promote Poland regarding its economy and trade exchange between the two countries. It is crucial to make sure that Polish nationals have their rights protected and respected.

What are the challenges which Poles have to face when they come to the Great Britain or when they have already been living here? 

BTE: Going to another country is always a difficult and brave decision. I think that people who decide to move confirm the opinion about Poles who are seen as a proactive nation, which takes care of their own destiny and brave enough to look for a better life. Although each individual defines a good or better quality of life in his own terms.  

I think that Poles may face many different problems. To start with it would be the knowledge of the language if it is good enough or exists at all. The language limits possibilities to organise the most basic things like accommodation, for example. It also involves the ability to find work which would ideally meets the qualifications and career ambition of the individual. It does not happen very often at the beginning. Last but not least, completely different problems appear when whole families and children arrive the the country.    

One of the things that engage the Embassy and the Consulate is the situation of Polish children at schools. There is a high level of unawareness among parents who decide to bring their children along and they think that the added value of the stay here will result in the learning of the English language. It is a true thesis which apply to small kids who are accepted by the English education system and are doing well.     

When we talk about teenagers, it is a rough period in life of every single young person and moving to another country and separation from their peer group is very difficult. On the top of that if we add a completely different education system it means that even a talented teenager who joins a class undergoing preparation to GCSE and 'A level’ exams, which are equivalents of Polish final exams of secondary education called 'Matura’, can have problems to find his place and very little chances to show what he or she is able to do and get these certificates.

On the other hand there are parents who are very busy, very often working on different shifts and when it is necessary to go to school for a meeting it appears that neither of both parents can make it. Whenever a teenager comes back from school he or she stays home alone. School headmasters often inform us about the problem of high absence of Polish students. It works like a vicious circle mechanism, the less often a teenager goes to school the less he or she learns and the more obvious is that it will make him or her feel more isolated. So we consider problems of children and teenagers to be the most challenging concerns for the new Polish community in this country.         

What is more, there are obviously many more practical things that we need to look after e.g. passports for children born here. There are two Consulates General of the Republic of Poland in London and Edinburgh and they experience queues of people who need to arrange that kind of formal issues. Although we have increased the number of staff in London, it is still difficult to accommodate the needs of customers regarding the number of passport applications submitted.     

How would you comment on the sensational news presented in the media recently regarding the number of Poles residing in the Great Britain and their influence on British work market?  

BTE: Whenever I go e.g. meeting with the most influential politicians like Gordon Brown, other politicians in the Parliament or different Ministries, travelling around the country – I have not received anything else than thankful opinions that they appreciate Poles coming to this country and contributing to the development of the United Kingdom.   

They very much value work ethics and dedication of Polish employees. I am quite confident that it is a true opinion. One of the media’s feature is that they present problems from different points of view, not always positive, but it is their role. I would expect more integrity in painting that picture. There are figures presented in public of how much is being spent on the birth of Polish children in British hospitals, but this information should be complemented by the fact that the same women and their families work here and pay taxes. Imagine that there is an unexpected interest in Polish work market, the same kind of social benefits would be available for European Union workers, as they are for the Poles.      

In media information there is a bit of blurring of objectivity. Journalists write about workers coming from the European Union and they include people who come from outside UE e.g. Asia and Africa. In this case the definition 'Immigrants’ holds many different categories and it is common that somewhere in very small print at the end of the text when a journalist or a politician is being asked for his opinion and has to be reliable, it comes to the light that they don’t speak about Poles, Lithuanians or Hungarians, apparently they have a completely different group of nationals from outside of the EU in mind.       

In the embassy, we are not oversensitive about issues regarding Poles when there are single accidents of disturbing public peace or unfortunately often incidents of drunk drivers. We shouldn’t feel offended then and claim that it does not happen to us at all. Unfortunately Poles are notorious for that. Even Polish media feed us very week with horrifying statistics regarding what is going on Polish roads. But when we dive deeply into that critical tone of media, there is neither Poles nor Polish teenagers who shoot to each other or attack people in the streets with knifes. So certainly it is not Polish immigrants who disturb social peace in this country.        

Do you think that thanks to the number of Poles in this country the interest in Poland itself has increased? Do more English people to go to Poland? 

BTE: I do think that is the reality. It is certainly caused by the presence of many young Poles who do not live in isolation from English people, they work with them. These facts influence increasing interest in Poland. It definitely increases the knowledge about our country on a constant basis.     

Throughout many years only a generation which has its personal contact with Polish army forces during and after the WWII when Polish veterans decided to come to this country and stay, these people have any contact with Polish nationals. There was nothing like that throughout the following generations. Apparently those days also an incredible number of flight connections made this contact to be easier and more feasible. I have heard that there is around 400 flights to and from Poland every week.        

That is also the everyday experience for my colleagues from the Polish Culture Institute where they face an increasing interest in our culture. With all of the sympathy to British people and very positive opinion about excellent Polish babysitters, housewives, technicians, engineers, builders it is utterly crucial that not only that association was brought to mind with regards to Poland.       

I very often heard that there is an amazing couple from Poland which take care of somebody’s house, garden and car. I can only hope that the speakers realise that for these people who are very often university graduates and have an excellent command of English it is the beginning of the road and a necessity to build up some capital for their live. Apparently their intellectual needs are completely different and much higher. So it is vital that apart from the positive opinions on this uncomplicated work Poles do there is also our cultural offer which shows that Poland should with no doubts be associated with something more than that, for example – with rich tradition and culture.       

Now, I have a few questions to you as a woman who is engaged in Polish diplomacy. What made you decide to direct your career onto that route? 

BTE: That has happened accidentally in some sense. I graduated from Scandinavian studies in 1980. Right after I graduated I started work in the overseas department of first 'Solidarity’. I admit that choosing the profile of studies was influenced by my willingness to work overseas. But unquestionably I could not imagine in that time that would have represented the Peoples Republic of Poland. Hence I had no plans whatsoever linked with diplomacy. Diplomacy makes a diplomat to become almost like a mirror reflection of what the country represents itself. The country and its politics at that time was not at all a country that I would like to and could represent externally. Nevertheless, when the ideas of solidarity and freedom won in Poland intentions of the first democratic government was to create a new face for Poland.        

It was unacceptable that a diplomat with years of experience in the Peoples Republic of Poland and membership to a communist party who according to instructions given throughout all 1980’s used to visit other countries and talk about 'Solidarity’ as one of these criminal organisations and then suddenly changed his mind and start saying something completely different. At that time I was offered to start a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, simply straightaway that after half a year of working in Warsaw I would be sent to be an Ambassador in Stockholm. It was a lucky coincidence in some sense because if Poland was not freed I would not join its diplomacy.      

Could you please tell us what do you feel to be Chief of one of the most important Polish diplomatic units in the world?  

BTE: On one hand it is a feeling of great responsibility and on the other enormous satisfaction and pleasure. Without a shadow of doubt, we have a lot of work here and I never work only 8 hours a day 5 days a week. It is a place where so many things are happening constantly. This is a job which creates opportunities to meet incredibly interesting people, some of them are very influential in politics, economy, fantastic scientists and intellectualists. It is truly a place which engages very much with its affairs, requires lots of strength and energy but pays off generously.       

Regarding professional careers I have an impression that women are still a minority although many of them decide to do that and they are successful. What are your observations of this matter in diplomacy? 

BTE: Comparing to male representatives, there is a smaller number of women in diplomacy, but this fact does not only apply to Polish diplomacy. Promotionally to our male colleagues, women are less often represented but it does not mean there are just so few of us. We had a female Minster of Foreign Affairs. Personally twice, I have been acting as a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. Now we have Mrs. Grażyna Bernatowicz – a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs who was previously an Ambassador in Madrid. There are also other women who are Ambassadors in at least a few other countries and they are also Directors of significantly important departments.

I do not tend to admit that it is great, because there are still too few of us women, but unquestionably it has been changing. Diplomacy is a difficult challenge for women because it is a duty. There nothing like regulated working hours patterns. Delivering work is connected with often business travel and it is a challenge to balance these things, especially for young women who have a child or children and presence of their mother should be mandatory.     

In your personal opinion, what is the difference between the role of female and male Ambassador?  

BTE: I was fortunate to be on duty in countries in which it was not a problem that I am a woman. It is one major difference in truth, a female Ambassador does not have a wife. Looking at my male colleagues Ambassadors, the role of Ambassador’s wife is extremely important and crucial. It is an enormous support, for example in the area of having guests.      

You can have the most efficient admin staff, but there is a gap for personal engagement to make an official dinner at the Ambassador’s residence stop being so formal and be not a stiff meeting any longer. We are taking about that personal touch in which a male Ambassador is being supported by his wife by arranging flowers, deciding on the menu, taking care of the interior decoration or looking after guests. Apart from all of these aforementioned things, wife’s opinion is a valued sourced of information, specially when it is a person who participates in the meeting but has an opportunity to step aside and look at it from a certain distance, at the same time.     

In what ways are the diplomatic forces trying to make career paths more attractive and encourage women to follow that direction?  

BTE: Unfortunately I don’t notice anything like that. The way women are treated in this matter is absolutely equal. Women have no special rights, I am afraid. I personally think that the way of thinking regarding that matters should be slightly different with disregard if it is diplomacy or other workplaces. If there were special rules applying only to women then as a contradiction family responsibilities would be dumped on women even more often. It is completely different when women have babies and they supposed to have the opportunities to come back to work. For example, they should be allowed to breastfeed whenever they have such needs.         

On the other hand, we should be looking for solutions which would allow flexibility for both parents equally. Employers should be able to support parents and not to put them in the position that they need to choose between children, family and work. These solutions should apply to both parents because otherwise family and children responsibilities will only be attributed to women. And it may be a glass ceiling that we cannot break to be able to develop ourselves and be promoted equally to men.     

What would be your advice for people, equally men and women, who would decide to have a type of job similar to yours?

BTE: You need to be interested what is going on in the world and you need to enjoy reading newspapers everyday with no disgust or with no intentions to read horoscopes only, but to look at the international pages and find out what is happening in Chad or East Timor. I am saying that because you can learn many things and you can dream that this type of career is suitable for you and become a sort of skilled worker. But you have true satisfaction from work when you do things that you are interested in and passionate about. Otherwise you think about diplomacy as about something very tiring. Nevertheless, if you are genuinely watching political discussions on BBC with real interest rather than watching a film instead, then it means you have chosen a right career path.      

As you have already emphasized, it is very important to keep yourself updated and learn all the time because diplomacy is all about being informed on a daily basis what is happening around the world. 

BTE: Absolutely. I think that this is the best part of my job. Obviously, there are some of routines, as normally in any other job. Nevertheless, especially when we are serving abroad, we need to know everything what is going on in Poland as we may be asked about Polish army and energy sector restructuring or Polish National Parks, for example, and we need to know everything. If we don’t know that we need to find out fairly quickly.      

It also applies to the country we are located in. To provide you with an example, we need to know if British government has intentions to send its soldiers to Chad and if not – why is that. At the same time, we need to watch what is going on in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, follow the daily information and that is why it is all so exciting. It takes a lot of time, but at the same time it is exciting that it is happening in real time and we are all involved participants of it.      

What do you expect from your co-workers that you deal with on daily basis?  

BTE: First of all, I expect their personal engagement that they are really going to deliver what is particularly well described as their duties. We are never sure what is going to happen during a single day and what can surprise us on an occasion. It does not mean that I expect from my colleagues that they will sacrifice their private and family lives and they will only be on duty every time. I am really pleased when we have new babies born or if I am being told about interesting theatre productions that my colleagues have seen or they sharing their impressions travelling across Scotland or Cornwall. The other things such as, for a example, that they are going to be the best example of politeness, culture and competence of Poles are obvious for me.      

How important is promotion of the Polish language in Great Britain in your opinion? 

BTE: It is a crucial thing. On the other hand, I think we should approach this matter not to be counterproductive. It is important to maintain and spread the availability of Polish language lecturing at universities. It is important to show as many Polish films. Children that arrive in here need to have the opportunity to learn their native language. Speaking about the language, we know that it comprises of much more than just speech. Languages is linked to culture, civilisation, history and heritage of the country, it is a gate to a far broader knowledge. We need to be very tactful at the same time, because Great Britain has a very multicultural society and the least thing I would expect is that such expectations would be put forward in an inappropriate manner. We don’t want to be asked why not promote Arabic, Hindu or Pashto language instead of Polish. Nevertheless, we should take care of our language being present hoping that frequent contacts between Brits and Poles and Poland will result in intense interest of learning Polish language.  

Thank you very much for your time.

Joanna Gulbińska

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