Frances Elizabeth Willis: Up the Foreign Service Ladder to the Summit -- Despite the Limitations of Her Sex

Frances Elizabeth Willis (1899 - 1983) lived a remarkable life. She was the first person to receive a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University (1923) and the first woman to make a career in the U.S. Foreign Service (1927 - 1964). She started as a Foreign Service Officer-Unclassified, slowly worked her way up the Foreign Service ladder and was appointed the first career-woman Ambassador in 1953, serving as ambassador to three countries. She was appointed the first woman Career Ambassador in 1962. These accomplishments in the face of massive gender bias in both the State Department and the Foreign Service, breaking glass ceilings—and glass tables—along the way, are the subject of a gripping new biography, Frances Elizabeth Willis: Up the Foreign Service Ladder to the Summit—Despite the Limitations of Her Sex. Throughout her distinguished career, Frances conferred with Secretaries of State Grew, Acheson, Dulles and Rusk, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Arleigh Burke, and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. She was the only woman to attend the Big Four Summit Conference in Geneva in 1955. She hosted celebrities and luminaries including Eugene Ormandy, Arthur Rubenstein, Louis Armstrong and Clare Booth Luce and had a memorable culinary encounter with Julia Child. The new biography is an essential read for anyone interested in women's history and early 20th century political history.