Women in Foreign Service Nigeria has put women in the fore-front of its development agenda pillar, which includes its foreign policy. The trend which became noticeable from 2003 to 2007 peaked in 2011 with the appointment of 13 women Ministers including a Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. There has been a gradual increase in the number of female ambassadors representing the country. As at 2006, out of 87 Ambassadorial appointments, 7 were women, representing 8.04 per cent with 80 of them being male, representing 91.96 per cent. Of the total of the 593 diplomatic staff, 63 are women representing 10.6 per cent of the total number. In 2007, a total of 71 Ambassadors were appointed, 64 were male representing 90.1 per cent and 7 female representing 9.9 per cent showing an increase from what it was in 2006. In 2014, a total of 93 Ambassadors have been appointed with 82 male representing 88.2 per cent while female is 11 representing 11.8 per cent. (See table 8.3 below) Table 8.3 Numbers of Ambassadors in Service by Gender —2006, 2007-2008, 2014 Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja 2014, Daily Champion Newspaper, September 2007; The Punch Newspaper, January 2014. Table 8.4 Number of Officers in Foreign Service by Gender, 2014 Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja 2014. From Table 8.4 above, generally more male than female are in foreign service and women are particularly few at the decision making level i.e. 9.6 per cent female top management staff compared to 90.4 per cent of their male counterparts at the same level. 160