Katherine Bracken | |
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Director of the Office of Central American and Panamanian Affairs | |
In office 1961–1962 | |
President | John F. Kennedy |
Director of the Office of Greek,Turkish,and Iranian Affairs | |
In office November 1962 –1966 | |
President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
Katherine W. Bracken was one of the few high-ranking female Foreign Service Officers (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. [1] [2] She,with her husband James,had a daughter in 1950 and a son in 1954. [3] [4]
Her career with the Foreign Service began in 1940 as a clerk in the US Embassy in Guatemala. [5] She later worked in Montevideo 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 or Consul. [6] In Greece,she served as the Counselor of Embassy for Political Affairs. [2] Bracken was the first woman to be enrolled in the Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy in 1946. [7] [8]
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. [9] [10] 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. [11] 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." [5] [12] She was only the second woman in the Department of State to win this award. [7]
Bracken was fluent in Greek,Turkish,Persian,and Spanish and was well-renowned for going above and beyond the language expectations of FSOs. [13] After being assigned to serve as the US Consul General in Istanbul,the Foreign Service Institute proposed Bracken study Turkish at Princeton University in 1953. [5] 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. [14]
Bracken retired from the Foreign Service in May 1967. [15]
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