Habitus and Contract: Behind Gender Inequality in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Who can speak for the state? Although the noun ‘diplomat’ includes both genders, diplomacy is not attributed to what is considered as ‘feminine’ characteristics, nor even with the figure of a woman herself. This article aims to contribute to the discussion in the field of women’s participation in public service, focusing on high-level bureaucracy – more precisely, the diplomatic career. The main question here concerns what lies behind the structural and structuring inequalities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and the Rio Branco Institute (Itamaraty), using gender as an analytical lens – but, of course, without disregarding issues of race and sexuality. To this end, we observed (i) the history of women entering the career since the beginning of the Brazilian republic; (ii) the practices that constitute the diplomatic habitus and ethos, from initial training at Itamaraty to the arrival at the MRE; and (iii) the racial-sexual contract that circumscribes the practices of domination in the institution.

Keywords
Gender; Itamaraty; Ministry of Foreign Affairs; habitus ; racialsexual contract