Methodology
To calculate the share of women ambassadors globally, a report was made for each UN member state that included the names of each country’s resident ambassadors and permanent representatives, the countries or missions where they are posted, and their gender. The data was then consolidated into a large database where results were combined, filtered, and analysed.
Sources:
The Dashboard relies on publicly available data found on countries’ MFA websites and individual embassy webpages. In a few cases, we complemented the data-gathering process with research published on other databases and through other indices to ensure reliability. When information was not publicly available or clearly not up to date, the share of women ambassadors was not calculated.
Who was counted?
Our dataset includes ambassadors who are resident ambassadors in another state, permanent representatives to international and regional organisations, and high commissioners with ambassadorial rank in the case of Commonwealth states. The data count does not include non-resident ambassadors, consuls, consuls-general, deputy heads of mission with or without ambassadorial rank, chargés d’affaires, ambassadors-at-large for particular issues (e.g. women and girls, nuclear proliferation, migration, etc.) or persons with ambassadorial rank serving in their national capital or within their MFA. The data set also did not include foreign affairs ministers or retired ambassadors.
Timeline:
The data for this edition of the Dashboard was gathered in January and February 2023 and published in March 2023 through the Women in Diplomacy Index.
Countries tracked:
Out of 193 states, we were thus able to track 169 states’ serving ambassadors for 2023. The 24 states for which we were not able to collect reliable data were excluded from the world and regional average count and from the ranking.
The countries that we could not find reliable data for include: Belize, Central African Republic, Honduras, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Yemen.