Author: Molly Joyce

Molly Joyce’s music has been described as “serene power” (New York Times), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “impassioned” (The Washington Post). She often performs with her toy organ, an instrument which engages with her disabled left hand, and studied at Juilliard, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and Yale.

Contributions from disabled women are often overlooked within foreign policy and international relations. Disability is perhaps the largest global minority (15% of the world's population according to a 2011 WHO/World Bank Report) and the most universal, as it is available to all as congenital, acquired, temporary, and permanent. I wanted to interview established (Judith Heumann, Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo, Susan Sygall) and emerging (Karine Grigoryan, Anna Landre, and Ekaete Umoh) disabled female leaders across a range of disabilities, countries, and experiences to ask them about their career motivations and advice.

What motivated them to become involved with foreign policy and service:

I wanted to understand their motivations to see if they came from personal or broader aspirations. My interviewees’ answers include human rights and intersectionality, international exchange, and meeting other disabled people.

Susan Sygall (Mobility International USA) - International exchange isn't enough: For Sygall, international exchange, such as travelling to various countries and learning about varying advocacy policies, was not enough. She thought that “affecting policies on the international level was much more substantial” in regards to potential impact. From international experiences, she realised that until there would be more disabled leaders, especially disabled women, the policies would not change to be inclusive of disabled people. In 1981, she founded Mobility International USA, a non-profit organisation that focuses on building a pipeline of disabled leaders and especially disabled women. Read her interview with WIFP.

Judith Heumann (former Senior Fellow at the Ford Foundation, Special Advisor for International Disability Rights under President Obama, Advisor on Disability and Development at the World Bank, Assistant Secretary of Education for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services under President Clinton, Co-Director, World Institute on Disability, Deputy Director, Center for Independent Living) - Meeting other disabled people: Heumann was motivated by meeting other disabled people from around the world “who were experiencing similar issues, regardless of whether or not they were from wealthy or poor countries." She began to question why disabled people weren’t embraced by civil rights movements worldwide, and was motivated by looking at the kind of world that disabled activists wanted to create.

Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo (World Bank Group): Linking human rights and intersectionality: McClain-Nhlapo comes from an interracial family, and her parents were very involved in the struggle against apartheid. This meant she grew up with “a very acute sense of addressing issues around inequality and social injustice.” From a very early age, she wanted to study and use what she learned to address issues around inequality and discrimination, and especially the intersection between human rights, development, and how they link to foreign policy. Read her interview with WIFP.

Anna Landre (Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service ‘21): Learning and exchange: Landre has always been interested in learning about new places, meeting new people, and exchanging ideas with those who have had different experiences than her. Initially, she was reluctant to let herself become attached to the field because she was worried about the potential to get hired and travel globally as a disabled person. However, she soon learned about leaders such as Judith Heumann and Ann Cody, disabled women who have paved the way for those of us who want to work in foreign service.

Ekaete Umoh (Vice President Africa at R.l; National President, Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities-Nigeria): Disability as globality: Participating in Mobility International USA’s WILD (Empowering Women with Disabilities Globally) program significantly advanced Umoh’s foreign policy ambitions, in working and developing programs behind her home country of Nigeria. That is when she began to see that disability issues are truly issues for global discourse.

How their disabilities inform their work in foreign policy

As an artist, I often mine my personal experience with disability to inform my public-facing work. I wanted to ask if this is similar in a foreign policy landscape.

Sygall: Personal as political: Sygall recalled Gloria Steinem’s legendary line, “the personal is political.” She expressed how disability is essential to her being, so she is always speaking up when she doesn’t see disabled voices represented. She believes that having a presence in the room changes the conversation and makes it more personal in a beneficial manner.

McClain-Nhlapo: Intersectional basis: As a disabled woman of colour, McClain-Nhlapo brings a lived experience that's very intersectional. She is aware of less obvious expressions or microaggressions that exist on such a basis. She also stressed the disability movement’s mantra of “nothing about us without us,” which is about bringing voices that understand what discrimination and stigma look like while helping shape solutions.

Landre: Biases and assumptions: Landre’s disability enables her to see the biases and assumptions that marginalised people in foreign policy face as well as how people respond to diversity. As a result, she “makes a point to study and talk about the plight of disabled people across the globe whenever she can.”

Karine Grigoryan (Founder and President, Agate Center for Women with Disabilities in Gyumri, Armenia): Grounded in personal experience: Grigoryan has a unique perspective grounded in her personal experience, that she would not have this if she was not disabled. This drives her desire to share this experience and inform her public outreach.

Umoh: Disability as commonality: When she’s speaking as a disabled person, Umoh is not trying to personalise her disability, but rather emphasise disability as a human rights and development issue. Disabled people make up to 30 million (15%) of Nigeria's population of 200 million, and that, for Umoh, “is too large a number to ignore in any development agenda.”

Their recommendations for aspiring women in foreign policy, especially disabled women

My interviewees’ answers ranged from greater accessibility to finding suitable mentors, and I feel that their recommendations can apply across fields.

Sygall: Advocating for accessibility: Sygall recommends advocating for free information and technical assistance, including accessibility such as sign language interpretation and screen readers, to both disabled people and international exchange organisations. She also encourages disabled women to start their own organisations, as she did in 1981, because historically disability organisations are controlled by men.

Heumann: Academic and work opportunities: Heumann advises aspiring women in foreign policy to study International Development at university, as well as take advantage of internship opportunities, such as at the U.S. State Department. Identifying mentors who are very willing to talk with people interested in foreign policy, and important to have friends with disabilities, because you are likely to experience discrimination with things that you're interested in doing, become discouraged and recognise that we're still all paving a new path.

McClain-Nhlapo: Engage and exchange: Don’t let your disability stop you from engaging in foreign policy, as it’s essential to encourage and amplify the voices of younger disabled women. She often hears younger women saying that they’ve only worked on domestic policy and aren’t sure how to pivot to foreign policy but says that “if you're thinking about it, you can start doing it.” She also said that it’s important to be humble and to bring a spirit of listening and learning to your work and to enjoy it. Lastly, she advised advancing your professional and technical expertise, while trying to make foreign policy more inclusive for other disabled people.

Landre: Mentorship: Landre’s main piece of advice is to find role models and mentors. She told me,“[I] never truly knew that I could be successful in foreign service until I saw women that look like me, wheelchair and all, doing so themselves.” She also said it’s critical to think about how we have our own biases that might prevent us from including important points of view. Landre said she all too often sees white and/or male-identifying disabled people from the Global North talking over other people but that practising true disability justice means centring the experiences of the most marginalised members of our community and that disabled women of colour and disabled women from developing countries have their voices heard.

Grigoryan: Cross-disability advocacy: It’s important to actively involve different types of disabilities, and enact policies or strategies to consult with those across a range of disabilities and taking into account intersectionality.

Umoh: Advocating for education: Umoh informed me that going to school and designing policies (either foreign or local policies) that allow disabled women access to quality education is essential. Looking at the education curriculums and pushing for inclusive education, Umoh wants disabled women to see that something glamorous can be a collective aspect of change. To have the network of women with disabilities so that from generation to generation training and knowledge will enable us to engage constructively and help develop better arguments around disability rights.

Concluding Thoughts

I found talking to these women incredibly inspiring and found their accounts of working in foreign policy very insightful. I hope this advice helps you in your careers, and am looking forward to continuing the dialogue about being a disabled woman in foreign policy.

Further Resources:

Grigoryan: Advocacy for Disabled Women in Armenia

Heumann: Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist, Crip Camp

Sygall: No Ordinary Days: A journey of activism, globe-trotting and unexpected pleasures, The Story of WILD

Landre: Georgetown Senior Researches Global Disabilities Rights Policies, Wins Marshall Scholarship

McClain-Nhlapo: Why It Is Time to Make Inclusive Development Inclusive | Charlotte McClain-Nhlapo | TEDxFoggyBottom

Umoh: Ekaete Judith Umoh at the Feminist Republik Festival

Edited by Ashvini Rae

Published 18th March 2021 and updated on 24th March 2021.