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Formal and Informal Institutions: Women Diplomats in Leadership at Japan’s Foreign Ministry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2025

Petrice R. Flowers Open the ORCID record for Petrice R. Flowers [Opens in a new window]
Petrice R. Flowers*
Affiliation:
Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution and Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs, https://ror.org/01wspgy28University of Hawai’i, Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
*
Email: pflowers@hawaii.edu
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Abstract

Do improved family policies meet women diplomats’ concerns about balancing work and family? Using a feminist institutionalist approach, the article analyzes the interaction of formal and informal institutional rules, the role of informality, and interactions between actors and rules to address whether and how family policies improve women diplomats’ experiences balancing work and family. Narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with Japanese women diplomats — most at the top ranks of diplomacy — surfaces the informal institutional rules at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The article finds that informal institutional rules along with the lack of transparency in promotion limit the effectiveness of family policies.

Keywords

women and diplomacyMinistry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)family policiesgendered diplomatic institutionsJapanformal and informal institutions

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , First View , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

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