Foreign Service Reading List
Foreign at Home and Away: Foreign-Born Wives in the U.S. Foreign Service
By Margaret Bender
In Foreign at Home and Away, Australian-born writer Margaret Bender has drawn on her own twenty-five years' experience as a Foreign Service wife to describe diplomatic life from the perspective of foreign-born wives, who, by some estimates, number one-half of the spouses of U.S. Foreign Service officers. From in-depth interviews with forty women from twenty-eight countries, she has gathered stories of their backgrounds, of the challenges they face, and of the contributions they make to the representation of the United States abroad. Their stories are woven throughout the book as they relate to such topics as cultural transitions, work, raising children, the special issues of senior wives and CIA wives, marital problems, life after the Foreign Service, and the experience of returning to their home countries after long absences. (From the book's foreword.)
From Marion Creekmore, Jr., former Ambassador to Sri Lanka, and former Carter Center Program Director: "An illuminating and highly readable book that provides insights into the challenges that confront foreign-born wives of U.S. Foreign Service officers (and the demands common to all U.S. foreign service spouses). These women are courageous and inspiring."
From Mette Beecroft, President Emerita, Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW): "This beautifully written book should be required reading for prospective foreign-born spouses, their husbands-to-be, their families, principal officers at U.S. posts, and human resources professionals in any U.S. agency that sends people overseas."
Margaret Bender is a writer, editor, and teacher of English as a Second Language. She has lived in Austria, England, Germany, India, Israel, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.