Women Ambassadors in the UN Security Council: Are They Shaping the Practice of Diplomacy?

2014 marked the first time in history when more than 30% of the United Nations Security Council’s ambassadors were women. In the years 2021 and 2022, women yet again represented a third of the Council’s permanent representatives. This book chapter examines diplomacy through a gender lens, exploring how the presence of women ambassadors shapes diplomacy in the Security Council. While we do not find a strong correlation between the increase in women ambassadors and impact on Council outcomes, we argue that women ambassadors affect diplomacy in the Council in three different ways: by being conscious of the need to diversify participation; by contributing positively to workplace culture and collegiality; and by (in their own view) adopting a qualitatively different style of formal communication, with a greater focus on bridge-building. Our research provides a glimpse into how the practice and institution of diplomacy might change with increasing numbers of women diplomats.