National Affairs: Career Woman

The minister left last night. I have assumed charge. Willis.

When that laconic message crossed his desk in 1932, Secretary of State Henry Stimson asked: Who is Willis? A look at the files revealed that Willis was Frances E. (for Elizabeth) Willis, 33, third secretary in the U.S. legation in Stockholm. In the absence of the minister and his top subordinates, Frances Willis had become the first woman ever to represent the U.S. abroad as a chief of mission, even an acting chief of mission.

Last week Frances Willis hove in sight of the foreign-service officer's lifetime goal: a mission of one's own. President Eisenhower nominated her to be Ambassador to Switzerland (where women do not have a vote and take no part in government). Now counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, she will be the sixth woman, and the first unmarried woman, to become a U.S. chief of mission.

Slim, buoyant Frances Willis is a hardworking, tactful career diplomat. A Ph.D. (Stanford), she taught history at Goucher and politics at Vassar before entering the foreign service at 28, served tours of duty in Chile, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Finland. In 1944-45 she was assistant to Under Secretary of State Joseph Grew, who says of her nomination to be Ambassador to Switzerland: "I think nobody could do a better job than she."