From Home to House

When on a job search, you should have a plan. The plan should consist of the goal of finding a job, without wasting time in wandering aimlessly and hoping to land the next job you see, despite it not being your ideal role. When I noticed how slim the pickings were for a paid job in the field of government relations, it made me realise that I should not limit myself to unpaid work - only if it meant moving forward to something extremely fulfilling in the near future.

This leads me to state that I have my foot firmly in the door of political relations - a position that aligns me with the work of central government and policy processes of political parties in the United Kingdom. Just a week ago, I was appointed the intern position of Policy and Casework for Member of Parliament (MP) Lynne Featherstone, who is the nation's Minister for Equalities since the Liberal Democrats joined forces to form a coalition government with the Conservative Party in May 2010. This is an extremely exciting opportunity for me, not only because I will gain first-hand experience on how to deal with British politics, but being mentored by the Minister for Equalities falls neatly into my advocacy work for women's rights and youth empowerment.

As the Policy and Caseworker, I will be responsible for drafting and corresponding to problems and policy queries of constituents on a range of social and national issues, assist with constituency-related policy research, and produce reports of enquiries. While the work is based at the constituency office in North London, this internship truly fulfils the mission of Grassroot Diplomat, as it allows me to wedge myself between grassroot advocacy and central government bureaucracy. Once this internship is complete in three months' time, I will surmise how this internship has helped me move forward to the next step.

Exciting times!

"Women in Diplomacy" published

I have the pleasure to announce my postgraduate dissertation has been published by American Diplomacy. The paper entitled, "Women in Diplomacy, 1990-2010" examines the role of British female diplomats on overcoming gender hierarchy.

As summarised by American Diplomacy, this assessment of the role of women in the British diplomatic service and the difficulties they have faced and can still face in breaking through the "glass ceiling" may be echoed in most of the world' diplomatic corps.

I focused the research on identifying entry points, approaches, methodologies and tools to support gender mainstreaming at the local, national, and regional levels of the diplomatic structure. Through gender analysis, I identified potentials, good practice and remaining challenges in increasing the participation of women in high-level politics and diplomacy in national and local development.

Here is the link: Women in Diplomacy, 1990-2010