Women at the helm.

• Author: Schroeder, Richard C.
• Position: Female ambassadors at the Organization of American States

"There is no room in the diplomatic service for discrimination against women," says Corinne McKnight, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the Organization of American States.

Ambassador McKnight is one of six women currently serving their countries as ambassador to the OAS. This is the largest number of women ever to occupy such a high position in the diplomatic ranks of the OAS. As a group, they are talented and dedicated - among the best and the brightest in the inter-American system.

Three of these women are career diplomats with impressive resumes in the foreign service of their countries. The other three are appointees with equally impressive experience in the private sector in such fields as women's rights or political causes. Their appointments seem to augur well for the future of women in the diplomatic service because each is a genuine trailblazer, the first woman appointed to the OAS by her country.

Women have previously been ambassadors to the OAS from other countries. The first to be appointed was Angela Acuna de Chacon of Costa Rica in 1962. Others have served since then from Chile, Grenada, and Nicaragua. But today's total of six envoys is unique, not only for the OAS, but for virtually all international organizations. (By way of comparison, the United Nations, with four times the member countries of the OAS, has seven women ambassadors).

Ambassador Corinne Averille McKnight of Trinidad and Tobago is a graduate of the University College of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. She also holds a degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. A foreign service officer since 1963, she rose through the ranks from entry-level administrative assistant to the top of the diplomatic service during nearly thirty years of hard work and determination.

She has been the ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago to the U.S. and the permanent representative to the OAS since 1992. In 1994 she was also named nonresident ambassador to Mexico. Prior to her Washington posting, Ambassador McKnight was director of international economic relations in Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Port of Spain. She has also served in her country's embassies in London and Brussels, as deputy chief of mission in the permanent mission of Trinidad to the European Communities. At the OAS, in 1993 and 1994, she occupied the key post of chairman of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council on Economic and Social Affairs (CEPCIES) and was also alternate delegate of Trinidad and Tobago to the Inter-American Commission of Women.

Today, with thirty-three years of diplomatic service under her belt, Ambassador McKnight still finds delight in her work. "I...