Margaret Joan Anstee
Dame Margaret Anstee worked for the United Nations from 1952 to 1993, leaving the organization at the highest rank under the Secretary-General, the senior woman in the United Nations, and the longest serving official of either sex at any level.
Image: Margaret Anstee, source BBC
Overcoming stereotypes of girls being less than boys
Margaret Anstee remembers the headmistress of her village school telling the girls that "...country children were not as intelligent as our town counterparts and that those of us who had the misfortune to be female were even less so."1
Her mother, however, left a powerful impression on the young Margaret who almost lost the chance to sit the exam for high school entry due to severe illness. Annie Anstee refused to believe the same headmistress's claim that the particular sitting was the only chance her daughter had to take the exam that would determine her future level of education. Anstee's mother travelled into Chelmsford to query the Chief Education Officer for Essex, and was informed of a second exam date, two months later, for children who had been ill. This incident clearly left a seed in Anstee's mind that not only could authority be questioned, but also be proved wrong.
When Anstee began working in the British Foreign Office, women earned less than men in the same positions. The reasons given were that the male employees could have a wife and family to support or have to spend money on entertaining. Female members of the diplomatic corps were not allowed to remain employed if they married. This did not sit well with a young woman who had learned to question authority from her mother.
1Anstee, Never Learn To Type (NLTT), p19
Her mother, however, left a powerful impression on the young Margaret who almost lost the chance to sit the exam for high school entry due to severe illness. Annie Anstee refused to believe the same headmistress's claim that the particular sitting was the only chance her daughter had to take the exam that would determine her future level of education. Anstee's mother travelled into Chelmsford to query the Chief Education Officer for Essex, and was informed of a second exam date, two months later, for children who had been ill. This incident clearly left a seed in Anstee's mind that not only could authority be questioned, but also be proved wrong.
When Anstee began working in the British Foreign Office, women earned less than men in the same positions. The reasons given were that the male employees could have a wife and family to support or have to spend money on entertaining. Female members of the diplomatic corps were not allowed to remain employed if they married. This did not sit well with a young woman who had learned to question authority from her mother.
1Anstee, Never Learn To Type (NLTT), p19
Never Learn to Type
Never Learn to Type: A Woman at the United Nations
Amazon Price: $35.00 (as of 11/23/2008)
I picked up this book intrigued by the title, as I did learn to type at a fairly young age in order to pursue a career as a writer. But inevitably my skills as a "typist" allowed me to get quick employment when needed as a secretary. And that, according to Margaret Anstee, inhibits one's ability to push further in a career. So I don't type for others anymore.
Hard work, determination, and vision
Anstee's hard work and long hours of relentless study helped her to overcome obstacles such as illness, war, and discrimination in order to get a place at Cambridge. Her intelligence and hard work paid off again when she won a place in the Foreign Office.
Anstee refused to accept that she was only good enough for a teaching job or as an "overqualified" assistant to a less intelligent male executive.
"Many of my peers had to take secretarial courses and became high-powered assistants to men often not as bright or as qualified as themselves. I decided very early on that I would never learn to type, in order to avoid a similar fate."2
"Many of my peers learned to type and became overqualified secretaries to male executives, often less able than themselves."3
2 NLTT, Preface, p xii
3 NLTT, p 63
Anstee refused to accept that she was only good enough for a teaching job or as an "overqualified" assistant to a less intelligent male executive.
"Many of my peers had to take secretarial courses and became high-powered assistants to men often not as bright or as qualified as themselves. I decided very early on that I would never learn to type, in order to avoid a similar fate."2
"Many of my peers learned to type and became overqualified secretaries to male executives, often less able than themselves."3
2 NLTT, Preface, p xii
3 NLTT, p 63
Synchronicity
Margaret Anstee had to make several unusual changes in direction that ultimately lead to success, born from sticking to a decision or principle.
Anstee worked hard to avoid ending up in a teaching career, but the subjects she'd taken at school seemed to point directly to teaching. One university, however, offered a degree in modern and mediaeval languages. Anstee was already studying English, French, and Latin, but in order to gain admission to the course she was required to pass an entrance exam in either Italian or Spanish. The closest technical college offered only Spanish, and Anstee's parents also paid a Spanish speaking factory worker to act as a Spanish tutor. In three months Anstee learnt enough Spanish to pass the exam.
When the Foreign Service began accepting female candidates, Anstee applied, fully aware that the competition and the selection process would be intense. Anstee was successful, and in 1948 began her career as a first entrant diplomat in the South American Department.
Female members of the diplomatic corps were not allowed to remain employed if they married. In 1949 (one year after starting her career) Anstee was engaged to a colleague in the Foreign Office. The engagement fell through, but in 1952 Anstee married another colleague, and left the Foreign Office.
Anstee's husband was posted to the Philippines were Anstee was offered a position with the UN. Initially she declined, but in less than three months her marriage had fallen apart, and Anstee took the job to earn her fare back to England. The position was originally a secretarial position, but Anstee could not type and her title was changed to Administrative Officer. In this position and many others, Anstee took on far more responsibility than her position indicated due to the disorganisation or incompetence of others.
Anstee left her job at the UN when her husband's posting to the Philippines ended. They returned to England and Anstee received a request to fill in temporarily for a lecturer at Cambridge. Anstee eventually left her husband, but needed to find a job. She applied for two positions that became vacant: the lectureship position at Cambridge, and the position of head of International Relations in the Labour Party. She then received a request to rejoin the UN as the deputy resident representative in Mexico. With the help of her parents, Anstee made the decision to leave England and begin a new career in South America. Her decision almost backfired. The Americans were wary of her former association with a communist who had been her boss in the Foreign Office, and, instead of Mexico, she was posted to Colombia, because the resident representative in Mexico had refused to accept a woman as his deputy. At the Bogotá office in Colombia, although she was appointed as deputy, the resident representative had resigned and the acting representative did not have sufficient knowledge of the UN processes, Anstee again acted beyond the capacity of her position. Again, her lack of typing knowledge helped her during a regional meeting of resident representatives in Mexico in 1956. "...Muguel Albornoz, the resident representative in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay (whom I succeeded in Uruguay the following year) demanded peremptorily that I take dictation. I was glad to be able to reply that I had never learned to type, much less take shorthand."4
In 1957 Anstee was promoted and transferred to Uruguay as resident representative. In 1958 she was first given the additional responsibility of heading the FAO's mission in Uruguay, and then appointed both the representative and the FAO Chief of Mission for Argentina in addition to Uruguay (this due to a revolution in Venezuela which required that the Argentinean representative take the post in Venezuela). (In Buenos Aires she used the same office that had been Eva Peron's).
And, also in 1958, she was finally able to divorce her husband.
Earlier in 1955 Anstee had chosen the UN over a possible political career. In 1967 Anstee's direction shifted back to English politics when she sought to return to the UK to be closer to her seriously ill mother. She was awarded the position of deputy to the head of the Prime Minister's independent economic advisory think-tank, and in 1968 was put in charge of the team when her superior was awarded a life peerage. She had the option to become a Labour candidate with the support of the Prime Minister.
At the same time, the UN offered her a resident representative position in Morocco. Still concerned about her mother, the proximity of Morocco to England was encouraging, and Anstee was keen to return to work in developing countries. Then she was offered a position of Chief of Staff to Robert Jackson who was undertaking a capacity study of the UN Development System - a theme Anstee felt she had a great deal of input to offer. When the UN offered to hold the position in Morocco for her until the study was completed, Anstee again chose the UN over an English political career.
In 1971 Anstee was offered the resident representative post in Chile. "I had refused that posting six years before, but now the situation was different. I knew a great deal about President [Salvador] Allende from the Chileans who had worked with me in Bolivia."5
Former colleagues now occupied ministerial positions in the Allende government. "The thought of working again with these former colleagues, at a dramatic juncture in Chilean history was enticing."6
Anstee initially turned the offer down because she couldn't move so far from her ill parents, but her father encouraged her to take the position.
In 1973 Anstee was offered a secondment as Jackson's deputy on a relief operation to Bangladesh, and additionally Jackson was organising emergency assistance for Zambia. Three months later General Pinochet's coup overtook Chile and Anstee had to try to get back into Chile to assist. "...I realised that Chile had been a watershed in my life and that I would never be the same person again. Some layers of innocence had been stripped away for ever... What had shocked me to the core in Chile was the brutal manner of the military takeover. Nothing in my long experience of Latin America had prepared me for this. Traditionally, a special plane bore the ousted President into exile and his ministers sought asylum in friendly Embassies. That this devastating breach with tradition should have occurred in Chile, arguably the most cultivated and civilised country on the continent, was almost inconceivable... It came home to me with painful clarity that it was only necessary for a certain convergence of circumstances, interests, and personalities to occur for uncontrollable human passions to be unleashed. What had happened in Chile could happen anywhere - even in England."7
In 1974 Anstee was asked to move to New York to conduct a study on the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) regional programme of technical co-operation in Latin America.
In 1977 she was offered the post of Secretary-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in London.
However, after a restructure, Anstee was asked to take a post of deputy to the Under Secretary-General heading DTCD (Department of Technical Cooperation for Development). The USG appointment was political so the responsibility for the management of the department fell on Anstee.
4 NLTT, p 131
5 NLTT, p 281
6 NLTT, p 281
7 NLTT, p329-330
Anstee worked hard to avoid ending up in a teaching career, but the subjects she'd taken at school seemed to point directly to teaching. One university, however, offered a degree in modern and mediaeval languages. Anstee was already studying English, French, and Latin, but in order to gain admission to the course she was required to pass an entrance exam in either Italian or Spanish. The closest technical college offered only Spanish, and Anstee's parents also paid a Spanish speaking factory worker to act as a Spanish tutor. In three months Anstee learnt enough Spanish to pass the exam.
When the Foreign Service began accepting female candidates, Anstee applied, fully aware that the competition and the selection process would be intense. Anstee was successful, and in 1948 began her career as a first entrant diplomat in the South American Department.
Female members of the diplomatic corps were not allowed to remain employed if they married. In 1949 (one year after starting her career) Anstee was engaged to a colleague in the Foreign Office. The engagement fell through, but in 1952 Anstee married another colleague, and left the Foreign Office.
Anstee's husband was posted to the Philippines were Anstee was offered a position with the UN. Initially she declined, but in less than three months her marriage had fallen apart, and Anstee took the job to earn her fare back to England. The position was originally a secretarial position, but Anstee could not type and her title was changed to Administrative Officer. In this position and many others, Anstee took on far more responsibility than her position indicated due to the disorganisation or incompetence of others.
Anstee left her job at the UN when her husband's posting to the Philippines ended. They returned to England and Anstee received a request to fill in temporarily for a lecturer at Cambridge. Anstee eventually left her husband, but needed to find a job. She applied for two positions that became vacant: the lectureship position at Cambridge, and the position of head of International Relations in the Labour Party. She then received a request to rejoin the UN as the deputy resident representative in Mexico. With the help of her parents, Anstee made the decision to leave England and begin a new career in South America. Her decision almost backfired. The Americans were wary of her former association with a communist who had been her boss in the Foreign Office, and, instead of Mexico, she was posted to Colombia, because the resident representative in Mexico had refused to accept a woman as his deputy. At the Bogotá office in Colombia, although she was appointed as deputy, the resident representative had resigned and the acting representative did not have sufficient knowledge of the UN processes, Anstee again acted beyond the capacity of her position. Again, her lack of typing knowledge helped her during a regional meeting of resident representatives in Mexico in 1956. "...Muguel Albornoz, the resident representative in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay (whom I succeeded in Uruguay the following year) demanded peremptorily that I take dictation. I was glad to be able to reply that I had never learned to type, much less take shorthand."4
In 1957 Anstee was promoted and transferred to Uruguay as resident representative. In 1958 she was first given the additional responsibility of heading the FAO's mission in Uruguay, and then appointed both the representative and the FAO Chief of Mission for Argentina in addition to Uruguay (this due to a revolution in Venezuela which required that the Argentinean representative take the post in Venezuela). (In Buenos Aires she used the same office that had been Eva Peron's).
And, also in 1958, she was finally able to divorce her husband.
Earlier in 1955 Anstee had chosen the UN over a possible political career. In 1967 Anstee's direction shifted back to English politics when she sought to return to the UK to be closer to her seriously ill mother. She was awarded the position of deputy to the head of the Prime Minister's independent economic advisory think-tank, and in 1968 was put in charge of the team when her superior was awarded a life peerage. She had the option to become a Labour candidate with the support of the Prime Minister.
At the same time, the UN offered her a resident representative position in Morocco. Still concerned about her mother, the proximity of Morocco to England was encouraging, and Anstee was keen to return to work in developing countries. Then she was offered a position of Chief of Staff to Robert Jackson who was undertaking a capacity study of the UN Development System - a theme Anstee felt she had a great deal of input to offer. When the UN offered to hold the position in Morocco for her until the study was completed, Anstee again chose the UN over an English political career.
In 1971 Anstee was offered the resident representative post in Chile. "I had refused that posting six years before, but now the situation was different. I knew a great deal about President [Salvador] Allende from the Chileans who had worked with me in Bolivia."5
Former colleagues now occupied ministerial positions in the Allende government. "The thought of working again with these former colleagues, at a dramatic juncture in Chilean history was enticing."6
Anstee initially turned the offer down because she couldn't move so far from her ill parents, but her father encouraged her to take the position.
In 1973 Anstee was offered a secondment as Jackson's deputy on a relief operation to Bangladesh, and additionally Jackson was organising emergency assistance for Zambia. Three months later General Pinochet's coup overtook Chile and Anstee had to try to get back into Chile to assist. "...I realised that Chile had been a watershed in my life and that I would never be the same person again. Some layers of innocence had been stripped away for ever... What had shocked me to the core in Chile was the brutal manner of the military takeover. Nothing in my long experience of Latin America had prepared me for this. Traditionally, a special plane bore the ousted President into exile and his ministers sought asylum in friendly Embassies. That this devastating breach with tradition should have occurred in Chile, arguably the most cultivated and civilised country on the continent, was almost inconceivable... It came home to me with painful clarity that it was only necessary for a certain convergence of circumstances, interests, and personalities to occur for uncontrollable human passions to be unleashed. What had happened in Chile could happen anywhere - even in England."7
In 1974 Anstee was asked to move to New York to conduct a study on the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) regional programme of technical co-operation in Latin America.
In 1977 she was offered the post of Secretary-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in London.
However, after a restructure, Anstee was asked to take a post of deputy to the Under Secretary-General heading DTCD (Department of Technical Cooperation for Development). The USG appointment was political so the responsibility for the management of the department fell on Anstee.
4 NLTT, p 131
5 NLTT, p 281
6 NLTT, p 281
7 NLTT, p329-330
And just when one plans to retire...
Anstee planned to retire in 1986, aged 60, "...fed up with the frustrations of working with the Chinese [in the Department of Technical Cooperation for Development] and of constantly being passed over for senior appointments... I was the longest-serving Assistant Secretary-General, at that level for ten years."8
In preparation Anstee bought property in Bolivia where she intended to settle down. "After a peripatetic life, over 40 years outside my land of birth, and with no family left except my aunt, I decided that Bolivia was the best place to settle. I loved the country, had many friends there, and could continue to work usefully there after retirement on issues close to my heart."9
Earthquake relief work in Mexico kept Anstee in the UN over 1986, and towards the end of that year she was appointed Special Co-ordinator for the Group of Eighteen report, a position which saw her working directly with the Secretary-General, and then, effective in March 1987, appointed Director-General of the Vienna office - finally with the sought-after rank of Under Secretary-General, becoming one of the first women to hold the rank. She was simultaneously the Director-General of UNOV (the Vienna office), Head of the UN Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, and Co-ordinator of all UN Drug-related Activities.
"I was naturally chuffed that I had at last broken through the glass ceiling that had previously prevented women from attaining the topmost rank of UN officials. The British government also seemed pleased. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent me a warm letter, together with an offer of support in my new functions."10
Anstee also finally realised her dream to direct programmes specifically for women. The Division for the Advancement of Women was part of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and serviced the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
In 1990 the Vienna office disbanded leaving Anstee "...dismayed at the inconsistencies of governments and [I] wondered whether I had not been right when I once described the UN as 'an impossible management challenge'..."11
In 1991 the high commissioner for refugees, Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar, departed office. This was a position that Anstee had coveted and applied for three times only to be knocked back. Now, as he departed, Pérez de Cuéllar proposed putting forward Anstee's name as a second choice behind his Chef de Cabinet, Virendra Dayal, to be his replacement. Dayal, however, lost favour and, as a result Anstee's name was not put forward either. "Governments took the matter into their own hands. The vacuum was filled by Mrs Sadako Ogata's candidature. She proved an excellent high commissioner and it is an immense satisfaction that a woman should have won plaudits in a job that I had been told, only a few years earlier, no woman could do. But I would not be human if I did not regret that Pérez de Cuéllar had not proposed my name first, in which case, I would probably have got the job to which I had so long aspired."12
Anstee retired to Bolivia, and became an advisor to the government and roving ambassador, and a delegate to the World Bank's consultative group on Bolivia.
8 NLTT, p389
9 NLTT, p 389
10 NLTT, p 403
11 NLTT, p 398
12 NLTT, p 432-433
In preparation Anstee bought property in Bolivia where she intended to settle down. "After a peripatetic life, over 40 years outside my land of birth, and with no family left except my aunt, I decided that Bolivia was the best place to settle. I loved the country, had many friends there, and could continue to work usefully there after retirement on issues close to my heart."9
Earthquake relief work in Mexico kept Anstee in the UN over 1986, and towards the end of that year she was appointed Special Co-ordinator for the Group of Eighteen report, a position which saw her working directly with the Secretary-General, and then, effective in March 1987, appointed Director-General of the Vienna office - finally with the sought-after rank of Under Secretary-General, becoming one of the first women to hold the rank. She was simultaneously the Director-General of UNOV (the Vienna office), Head of the UN Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, and Co-ordinator of all UN Drug-related Activities.
"I was naturally chuffed that I had at last broken through the glass ceiling that had previously prevented women from attaining the topmost rank of UN officials. The British government also seemed pleased. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent me a warm letter, together with an offer of support in my new functions."10
Anstee also finally realised her dream to direct programmes specifically for women. The Division for the Advancement of Women was part of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and serviced the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
In 1990 the Vienna office disbanded leaving Anstee "...dismayed at the inconsistencies of governments and [I] wondered whether I had not been right when I once described the UN as 'an impossible management challenge'..."11
In 1991 the high commissioner for refugees, Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar, departed office. This was a position that Anstee had coveted and applied for three times only to be knocked back. Now, as he departed, Pérez de Cuéllar proposed putting forward Anstee's name as a second choice behind his Chef de Cabinet, Virendra Dayal, to be his replacement. Dayal, however, lost favour and, as a result Anstee's name was not put forward either. "Governments took the matter into their own hands. The vacuum was filled by Mrs Sadako Ogata's candidature. She proved an excellent high commissioner and it is an immense satisfaction that a woman should have won plaudits in a job that I had been told, only a few years earlier, no woman could do. But I would not be human if I did not regret that Pérez de Cuéllar had not proposed my name first, in which case, I would probably have got the job to which I had so long aspired."12
Anstee retired to Bolivia, and became an advisor to the government and roving ambassador, and a delegate to the World Bank's consultative group on Bolivia.
8 NLTT, p389
9 NLTT, p 389
10 NLTT, p 403
11 NLTT, p 398
12 NLTT, p 432-433
Overwhelming odds
Anstees successes and failures
In 1991 after Jackson's death, and while also heading the Vienna office (ie, Director-General of the Vienna office, Head of the UN Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, and Co ordinator of all UN Drug-related Activities), Anstee continued to hold concurrent assignments, including Special Representative for Bolivia and Peru, Head of Social Policy Mission to Russia, UN Co-ordinator for the international assistance to Chernobyl, and Special Representative to Kuwait after the torching of the oil wells. When Anstee was appointed the UN Co-ordinator for the international assistance to Chernobyl, "The task was, as usual, to be performed 'within available resources', of which I had none to spare. So I stood out for two months until I was assured of two professionals and one secretary, who did not materialise until March."13
In 1992 Anstee met the new Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, informing him that "...it was pointless for me to continue in Vienna unless the social development programme was fully integrated. If not, I was happy to retire. If I could be of service I would prefer an operational job and was ready to go anywhere."14
Anstee was made Special Representative for Angola and head of the Angolan peace-keeping mission. Anstee was aware that this was an extremely challenging mission, but she also realised that this was "...the first time that a woman had been asked to head a UN peace-keeping mission, with command over military and police components, as well as civilian elements. If I refused, the sceptics would say, 'It was offered to a woman, but she refused', while women would feel that I had let them down... Failure, which many thought likely, would entail the familiar search for a scapegoat... I decided that it was better to end my career with a bang (and how true that turned out to be!) than a whimper."15
"Formerly Dr Savimbi had called me 'the mother of the peace process'... [now] I was without moral character, and had 'sold (my) honour and dignity for diamonds,,, and US dollars...'"16
Despite the major hurdle of the difficulty of getting Dr Jonas Savimbi and President José Eduardo dos Santos to meet, "...against all odds, we had managed to set up a huge logistical support operation quite outside our mandate... [during the voting in September 1992] Angola had its two most peaceful days in 30 years. Of registered voters, 92 per cent turned out... Many countries and organizations sent observers... I met two Americans who exclaimed, 'This is textbook... We have never seen anything that so scrupulously followed the rules.'"17
However the slender peace agreement between UNITA and the Angolan government fell through even before dos Santos won the election, and war broke out. Anstee was requested to go on as SR to Mozambique after the Angolan election and had agreed, "...provided the errors of inadequate mandate and resources that had undermined the Angolan process were remedied..."18
Anstee was not sent to Mozambique after all, but delegates used her report and ensured that the mistakes made in Angola were understood. The Mozambique operation was a success.
Interestingly, Kofi Annan was a junior official in 1971 when the Dacca relief operation was run by Jackson after the Capacity Study. In 1993 when Anstee was leaving Angola, Anstee's successor requested that she remain a few days in order to brief him fully. Anstee received a response from Kofi Annan "...in terms more appropriate to a reprimand to a delinquent subordinate than a message between two Under Secretaries-General, particular when the recipient was more senior...This was the last official communication I received from the UN after 41 years of service. I was bitterly hurt by the tone and the unjustified assumption that I was trying to hang on."19
13 NLTT, p 450
14 NLTT, p 465
15 NLTT, p 466-467
16 NLTT, p 483
17 NLTT, p 478-479
18 NLTT, p 487
19 NLTT, p 502
In 1992 Anstee met the new Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, informing him that "...it was pointless for me to continue in Vienna unless the social development programme was fully integrated. If not, I was happy to retire. If I could be of service I would prefer an operational job and was ready to go anywhere."14
Anstee was made Special Representative for Angola and head of the Angolan peace-keeping mission. Anstee was aware that this was an extremely challenging mission, but she also realised that this was "...the first time that a woman had been asked to head a UN peace-keeping mission, with command over military and police components, as well as civilian elements. If I refused, the sceptics would say, 'It was offered to a woman, but she refused', while women would feel that I had let them down... Failure, which many thought likely, would entail the familiar search for a scapegoat... I decided that it was better to end my career with a bang (and how true that turned out to be!) than a whimper."15
"Formerly Dr Savimbi had called me 'the mother of the peace process'... [now] I was without moral character, and had 'sold (my) honour and dignity for diamonds,,, and US dollars...'"16
Despite the major hurdle of the difficulty of getting Dr Jonas Savimbi and President José Eduardo dos Santos to meet, "...against all odds, we had managed to set up a huge logistical support operation quite outside our mandate... [during the voting in September 1992] Angola had its two most peaceful days in 30 years. Of registered voters, 92 per cent turned out... Many countries and organizations sent observers... I met two Americans who exclaimed, 'This is textbook... We have never seen anything that so scrupulously followed the rules.'"17
However the slender peace agreement between UNITA and the Angolan government fell through even before dos Santos won the election, and war broke out. Anstee was requested to go on as SR to Mozambique after the Angolan election and had agreed, "...provided the errors of inadequate mandate and resources that had undermined the Angolan process were remedied..."18
Anstee was not sent to Mozambique after all, but delegates used her report and ensured that the mistakes made in Angola were understood. The Mozambique operation was a success.
Interestingly, Kofi Annan was a junior official in 1971 when the Dacca relief operation was run by Jackson after the Capacity Study. In 1993 when Anstee was leaving Angola, Anstee's successor requested that she remain a few days in order to brief him fully. Anstee received a response from Kofi Annan "...in terms more appropriate to a reprimand to a delinquent subordinate than a message between two Under Secretaries-General, particular when the recipient was more senior...This was the last official communication I received from the UN after 41 years of service. I was bitterly hurt by the tone and the unjustified assumption that I was trying to hang on."19
13 NLTT, p 450
14 NLTT, p 465
15 NLTT, p 466-467
16 NLTT, p 483
17 NLTT, p 478-479
18 NLTT, p 487
19 NLTT, p 502
Inspirational people
The people who influenced Margaret Anstee
- Anstee's parents and aunt Christina. Her father died in September 1971, her mother in December 1972.
- Julia Henderson - head of social development at UN Headquarters in 1956 (when Anstee was a deputy resident representative in Colombia). Anstee felt Henderson should have become the first female Assistant Secretary-General.
- Barbara Castle (Labour politician when Anstee was working as deputy to the PM's think-tank head in 1967/8), whom Anstee felt should have become Britain's first female Prime Minister.
- Margaret Thatcher. When Anstee visited Moscow in 1989 she was compared to Thatcher: "The coincidence of our first names, gender, and nationality conjured up a special link and my hosts insisted on giving me presents to pass on to her (which I duly did)."20
"They had long made me aware of their admiration for Mrs Thatcher, and thought it a compliment to dub me also as 'the Iron Lady'."21
20 NLTT, p 445
21 NLTT, p 448
- Julia Henderson - head of social development at UN Headquarters in 1956 (when Anstee was a deputy resident representative in Colombia). Anstee felt Henderson should have become the first female Assistant Secretary-General.
- Barbara Castle (Labour politician when Anstee was working as deputy to the PM's think-tank head in 1967/8), whom Anstee felt should have become Britain's first female Prime Minister.
- Margaret Thatcher. When Anstee visited Moscow in 1989 she was compared to Thatcher: "The coincidence of our first names, gender, and nationality conjured up a special link and my hosts insisted on giving me presents to pass on to her (which I duly did)."20
"They had long made me aware of their admiration for Mrs Thatcher, and thought it a compliment to dub me also as 'the Iron Lady'."21
20 NLTT, p 445
21 NLTT, p 448
Upbringing and morals
Consequences for another person having an effect on a directional decision
Margaret Anstee fell for a married man in 1966. Unable to have a future with him, Anstee allowed a companionable relationship to develop with a colleague almost fifteen years her senior, Sir Robert Jackson, who was married to a Catholic. Ironically Jackson's divorce negotiations were to take longer than Anstee's first lover's. ("Barbara [Jackson's wife], her health improved, had in 1977 agreed to allow their judicial separation to be converted into divorce... then Robin [Jackson's son] suddenly announced his engagement. Barbara decreed that it would not be seemly for the family to have a divorce and an engagement in the same year, and the legal proceedings were once more shelved... afterwards discussion of divorce... seemed to have been postponed sine die."22 )
In 1971 Anstee's lover's wife agreed to grant him a divorce. Anstee decided to refuse the offer because "...Jacko had come to rely on me, we had a happy companionship, and he had instituted legal proceedings to enable us to marry. It seemed the height of disloyalty to abandon him... Moreover the problems affecting my parents were worsening, and I did not see how I could simultaneously cope with the upheavals that acceptance of the offer would bring... I let my head rule a heavy heart. It was a decision I was to regret ever afterwards, but even looking back now I had little alternative."23
22 NLTT, p348
23 NLTT, p288
In 1971 Anstee's lover's wife agreed to grant him a divorce. Anstee decided to refuse the offer because "...Jacko had come to rely on me, we had a happy companionship, and he had instituted legal proceedings to enable us to marry. It seemed the height of disloyalty to abandon him... Moreover the problems affecting my parents were worsening, and I did not see how I could simultaneously cope with the upheavals that acceptance of the offer would bring... I let my head rule a heavy heart. It was a decision I was to regret ever afterwards, but even looking back now I had little alternative."23
22 NLTT, p348
23 NLTT, p288
Margaret Anstee's extraordinary life story
Read this amazing woman's story.
Never Learn to Type: A Woman at the United Nations
Amazon Price: $35.00 (as of 11/23/2008)
Margaret Anstee at a Glance
Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, DCMG (born June 25, 1926) served at the United Nations for over four decades (1952-93), rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General in 1987. She worked on operational programmes of economic and social development in all regions of the world, mostly with the United Nations Development Programme. Form 1987-1992 she served as Director General of the United Nations at Vienna, Head of the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs and Coordinator of all United Nations narcotic drug-control programs. From 1992-93 she was the Secretary General's Special Repre...
Commentary copyright © Elsa Neal, 2005-2008.
Fair use quotations from Never Learn to Type, copyright © Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, 2003, published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, UK
All rights reserved.
Fair use quotations from Never Learn to Type, copyright © Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, 2003, published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, UK
All rights reserved.
Daoine has been a Top 100 Giant Squid since July 2008, and was chosen to be part of the first group of Squid Angels, blessing lenses from May 2007 to April 2008.
