Katherine W. Bracken was one of the few high-ranking female

Foreign Service Officers A Foreign Service Officer (FSO) is a commissioned member of the United States Foreign Service. Foreign Service Officers formulate and implement the foreign policy of the United States. FSOs spend most of their careers overseas as members of U. ...

(FSO) for the US Department of State in the late 1950s–1960s. She is notable for working at the Department and continuing to climb the ranks as a married woman during a time when the informal rule was for women to retire as soon as they were married. Bracken was originally from Dania Beach, Florida. She, with her husband James, had a daughter in 1950 and a son in 1954. Her career with the Foreign Service began in 1940 as a clerk in the US Embassy in Guatemala. She later worked in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

in a similar position. Bracken passed the Foreign Service exam in 1946 and subsequently worked in the Middle East, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and India as

Vice Consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

or Consul. In Greece, she served as the Counselor of Embassy for Political Affairs. Bracken was the first woman to be enrolled in the

Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy The Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy, also known as the Senior Executive Seminar, is an annual 10 month-long seminar for senior diplomats and officials offered by the Foreign Service Institute within the Department of State. The members of the se ...

in 1946.

Among other positions, she served as the US Consul General in Istanbul, the Director of the Office of Central American and Panamanian Affairs in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs in 1961, and the Director of the Office of Greek, Turkish, and Iranian Affairs from November 1962 until 1966. According to Peter B. Swiers, Consular Officer to Athens from 1961-1964, Bracken was one of the most well-known examples of women in higher positions on the political/economic side of the State Department. In 1962, Bracken was presented the Federal Woman's Award as the third highest ranking woman in the Foreign Service and the "only woman Officer Director in the Department's five Regional Bureaus." She was only the second woman in the Department of State to win this award. Bracken was fluent in Greek, Turkish, Persian, and Spanish and was well-renowned for going above and beyond the language expectations of FSOs. After being assigned to serve as the US Consul General in Istanbul, the

Foreign Service Institute The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States federal government's primary training institution for employees of the U.S. foreign affairs community, preparing American diplomats as well as other professionals to advance U.S. foreig ...

proposed Bracken study Turkish at Princeton University in 1953. Princeton did not accept female students, but did accept Bracken after the dean of FSI threatened to stop sending FSOs to study there, under the condition that Bracken not be granted a degree, nor provided with university housing and facilities. Bracken retired from the Foreign Service in May 1967.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bracken, Katherine Living people United States Department of State officials American women diplomats People from Broward County, Florida Year of birth missing (living people)