Madeleine Albright: Negotiating Gender at Home and Abroad

Abstract

As the first female United States Secretary of State, Madeleine K. Albright redefined the role of America’s top diplomat. While Albright’s prolific foreign policy achievements are well documented, there has been little analysis of the negotiation style that contributed to her accomplishments. This article argues that Secretary Albright’s negotiation style was formed, at least in part, by the need to respond to her counterparts’ gender‐based stereotypes. Albright managed those stereotypes in two ways: by leveraging them in her negotiations, and by framing her assertiveness so as to avoid a counter stereotypic backlash. How exactly she did so is the focus of this article. Using two case studies from Albright’s tenure as Secretary of State, I draw generalizable lessons for other negotiators looking not only to mitigate, but also exploit, the gender‐based assumptions that they face.