Welcome to The Gender Diplomat!

I was recently invited to chair the foreign policy team of a new citizens' initiative in Portugal, which aims to propose public policies to the Portuguese parliament in a year's time. My first task was to recruit the 17 members of my team (citizen MPs) from a pool of 300 incredible candidates. I've applied for hundreds of jobs over the last 8 years, but I'd never had the experience of being on the other side and having the responsibility of analysing 300 applications to fill a number of vacancies. As a result, my opinion of hiring processes has changed radically. It turns out that hiring and selecting "the ideal candidate" is actually quite difficult, as much as making the effort to apply and ensuring that you are aligned with the requirements. I did it and I’ve met them, and they are incredible 17 human beings. The selection process was hard and it got me thinking. As usual, you can now pick my brain.

💬 How to apply for anything: reflections on a competitive selection process

↪️ MOTIVATION, PASSION AND AMBITION MEAN A LOT

Motivation, passion and ambition can change the world, and I truly respect and share these feelings and mentality when I run for things that make me happy. In this particular process, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who challenged themselves to break down the wall that still seems to exist between "politics" and "citizens". This was proof that ordinary citizens, when given the opportunity to use their voice, are not afraid to use it, contradicting the idea that they are oblivious to what is going on in our country and that they never have anything to say about politics. Furthermore, with regard to the concrete objective of our parliamentary group, the number of highly motivated candidates also demonstrated that our foreign policy is not something distant and abstract from the citizens' perspective, and that they value it as an important instrument that our country possesses. The more passionate, motivated and interested we are when we stand for something, the more it shows and the more it plays in our favour.

↪️ AND THE IDEAL CANDIDATE IS… IT DEPENDS

Although the high number of candidates (and their quality) is a symbol of hope for building a better society, the overwhelming majority of candidates who run for these initiatives are still people who live in the big cities (of Portugal), with few candidates coming from the "deep" interior, remote regions or smaller towns, namely the Alentejo and Algarve. I think this reflects and reinforces the abandonment of political discussion outside the metropolitan areas, because these people also feel that politics "isn't for them" and participation isn't welcoming for them either. This has to change so that we can give opportunities to people who are normally far removed from our political bubbles, but also so that our bubbles better reflect the plural and diverse society we have. We also receive applications from Portuguese living outside Portugal who, contrary to the idea that our diaspora leaves the country with disdain, want to be an active voice in building public policies that can effectively make Portugal a better place (and they don't necessarily benefit from this because they live abroad). So our diaspora is not alienated from our country and its political situation, but perhaps we should reflect on whether we are the ones who are alienated from our diaspora, from what it thinks and what it wants. 

↪️ MERITOCRACY IS THE BIGGEST LIE WE'VE EVER BEEN TOLD

Even in a process where applications are anonymous, it's very easy to realise that we all have very different starting lines in the race of life, and this is perhaps the meritocracy's greatest fraud. As I analysed hundreds of CVs, I could safely say that living in a city is an asset and that being born in the capital is the biggest hack. We had to take geographical and age factors into account to ensure that our final selection was as diverse as possible, but our pool of candidates wasn't that diverse in the first place. Hiring diverse talent is indeed very difficult and requires affirmative action, but the problem also lies with us: the way we reach out, liaise, communicate and welcome people from minority or less privileged groups into our bubbles. The way we (never) use examples and role models that reflect their lived experiences and to make them feel welcome or that they also belong in these spaces. Under-representation is a vicious cycle and it got me thinking about how best to target, adapt and incentivise applications from outside the "merit bubbles" that blind us. It was good homework and I want to look into this with the help of experts! Homework submission date: ASAP.

↪️️ YOU ARE YOUR STRONGEST ASSET

Our political players always say, almost as if it were a sacred mantra, that Portugal has "the most qualified generation ever" and this is indeed true. We go to school, we learn languages from an early age, we learn, we debate, we work hard, we get a good degree. In a way, we are very privileged. However, rather than being merely academically qualified, the candidates of this "generation" are, unsurprisingly, people who have lived through incredible experiences and hold truly impressive positions and roles. Most importantly, they are not afraid to own it and show it. Went on a gap year? Brag about it. Don’t know who you are or what you want to do with your career? Be kind to yourself. Quit your job because you were working too much and unpaid? Be proud for standing up for yourself. Personal life and career are no longer linear, traditional and by the book, and the new generations seek and demand flexibility and openness to do and be different, whether at work or in personal life. Originality is in, choosing your own path is is cool, and being yourself is your strongest asset. I think that we really shouldn't underestimate ourselves as human beings… and hope we realise that we have never been this prepared to do so much more and do so much better!

⚡ Growing in and out of your 9 to 5

JOBS

• Senior social media officer — Crisis Group

• Research assistant, Islam and politics — SOAS Uni of London

• Asia political editor — Wall Street Journal

• Membership officer — Missing Children Europe

• Fundraising specialist — Médecins Sans Frontières

• Gender equality advisor — OSCE

• SRHR consultancy — IPPF

GROWTH

• Ikigai and your career — Forbes

• Where is the “motherhood penalty” greatest? — The Economist

• Just for fun: How Portugal’s pastel de nata became Brussels favourite pastry — Euronews

EVENTS

• Ukraine Security Forum: a tipping point for Europe’s security and democracy — Friends of Europe

• The NATO Washington Summit: Reinforcing NATO, supporting Ukraine, strengthening Europe — CEPS

• Sustainable digital competitiveness 2030: a far-fetched evolution for Europe? — PCS Think Tank

• 50 anos de democracia e as eleições europeias (hoje!) — NOVA SBE

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See you next week!👩🏻‍💻