A history of the employment of women in the Department of State and the Foreign Service is presented. Thirteen chapters consider the status of American women from 1776 to the present; women in the Department and at international conferences, 1800-1940; applicants and employees for overseas employment, 1851-1943; the Foreign Service examinations; the impact of war on employing women; the postwar period, 1949-1970; and the present and future role of women in the Department of State. In summary, it was not until the Civil War that the government began to hire women in full-time positions. Although men and women in the Department of State received equal pay for equal work, men were promoted more quickly than women. For the first 35 years all women in the Department filled clerical jobs; in 1909 the first woman was appointed to a semiprofessional position. Today, the Department has a higher percentage of women at the senior, middle, junior, and support levels than the government as a whole. It has been more difficult, however, for women in the Foreign Service. The Department reluctantly allowed women to take Foreign Service examinations in the 1920s. Although from 1930 until the end of World War II, no women made the grade by the examination process, since that time more women have been admitted to the Foreign Service. By 1978 one woman had reached the level of Undersecretary, one as Director General of the Foreign Service, a few as Assistant Secretaries, and several as Deputy Assistant Secretaries. Finally, 26 women have reached the epitome of success as Ministers Plenipotentiary and Ambassadors Extraordinary. (KC)