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This article makes the case for recovering women's roles from the forgotten corners of diplomatic history, and for considering the consequences of the gap between feminist and non-feminist research. It shows how ignorance of the gendered nature of diplomatic norms and practices impacts our understanding of diplomatic history, and how specific biographies are hampered by gender blindness in particular. Using the history of Margaret van Kleffens and Dutch World War II diplomacy as an example, the article demonstrates how historians' continued neglect of the role of women and gender norms has influenced representations of twentieth-century diplomacy. To dismiss the history of gender and of women as by definition irrelevant to the actions of states and of male statespersons is not simply part of a selfappointed focus on the political at the expense of the personal; rather, it omits much of the political history too, reproducing stereotypes and resulting in a skewed understanding of diplomatic history and foreign policy decisions. The article argues that both historians and feminist scholars need to historicize gender in order to recognize women's roles in diplomacy, and so gain a better understanding of the history of international politics as a whole.

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Faithful to Foreign Affairs. Margaret van Kleffens, Anne van Roijen, the Embassy in Washington, and the Significance of the Diplomatic Partnership for Post-War Dutch Foreign Relations This article argues that more attention for the role of diplomats’ partners, who in the studied period were almost exclusively female, offers new insights into the daily practices of Dutch twentieth-century diplomacy. It begins with a short overview of research on diplomats’ wives from other countries. The authors then examine the state of our knowledge about Dutch diplomats’ wives, discussing why there is so little attention for this subject in the Netherlands. Finally, a case study highlights the activities of the wives of two central figures in Dutch diplomacy at the Washington embassy in 1947-1964: Margaret van Kleffens-Horstmann and Anne van Roijen-Snouck Hurgronje. The study shows that daily diplomatic work was in practice a job for two people, with tasks divided along gendered lines. Wives made women’s networks available to male diplomats and did representative, social, and informal work that was considered crucial to diplomatic success.

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