I’ve never been what you might call a “committed” Foreign Service spouse.

There’s a lot of reasons for that, ranging from really not liking having a bureaucracy in control of so much of my life, to not really needing to travel as much as so many FS types seem to (including the husband), to having limited patience with foreign cultures. Fairly early in the husband’s career, I started mentally dividing countries into Countries with a Clue, Countries With No Clue, and Countries That Might Possibly Get a Clue, Some Day, But I’m Not Waiting Around To Find Out.

On top of all that, a lot of what diplomats do either goes right over my head or seems largely geared toward keeping CoDels or political appointee ambassadors happy.

But then we get this kick-ass woman Secretary of State. Who talks actual sense in this Newsweek article and actually points out a few things that have been um, pretty obvious for some time now.

“If a country doesn’t recognize minority rights and human rights, including women’s rights, you will not have the kind of stability and prosperity that is possible.”

“I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century.”

“This is a big deal for American values and for American foreign policy and our interests, but it is also a big deal for our security,” she told NEWSWEEK. “Because where women are disempowered and dehumanized, you are more likely to see not just antidemocratic forces, but extremism that leads to security challenges for us.”

Well, OK, then.

Maybe with a woman like this in charge — a person who sees the world in terms of more than just who has the biggest weapons *cough* — the State Department might get to be a little more interesting, and the FS “lifestyle” might be a little more worth it to me.