Women in Diplomacy in the Gulf Region

Abstract Scholarship on women in diplomacy has largely centred on Europe, North America and international organisations, leaving the area known as ‘the Gulf’ as an unexplored area. To address this gap, the article uses feminist institutionalism and Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis to compare women’s representation in diplomacy in Iran and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ). Both countries are patriarchal, authoritarian and illiberal states with legacies of entrenched gender inequality, and the percentage of women ambassadors representing both countries is well below the global average. However, while in Iran only a handful of women ambassadors have ever been appointed, in the UAE , the percentage of women ambassadors almost doubled between 2018 and 2025. The article deploys a most similar systems logic to reveal conditions under which women’s representation in diplomacy can be strengthened in two Gulf countries that are patriarchal, authoritarian and with legacies of entrenched gender inequality. It argues that Iran is a case of ‘patriarchal exclusion’ while the UAE is a case of ‘state-managed inclusion’, and it explains why exclusion persists in Iran but inclusion became possible in the UAE . The findings advance our understanding of women’s representation in diplomacy beyond the West.