Margaret Anstee

Dame Margaret Anstee DCMG
Dame Margaret Anstee at the Honduran Military Academy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Born	Margaret Joan Anstee 25 June 1926 Chelmsford, England
Died	25 August 2016(2016-08-25) (aged 90)
Alma mater	University of London
Occupation	Diplomat at the United Nations (1952–1993)

Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, DCMG (25 June 1926 – 25 August 2016) was a British diplomat who served at the United Nations for over four decades (1952–93), rising to the rank of an Under-Secretary-General in 1987. She was the first woman to hold this position.

Anstee grew up in Chelmsford, Essex, in rural England. Neither of her parents had finished secondary school, and they encouraged her to complete her education. She was educated at Chelmsford County High School for Girls and Newnham College, Cambridge. She graduated with first class honours in French and Spanish in 1944, although it was another three years before the university began admitting women to full degree status. Anstee went on to continue her studies at the University of London.

After working as a university lecturer, Anstee joined the Foreign Office in 1948. However, due to the Foreign Office's marriage bar policy in force at the time, which required women employees to resign when they married, her career ended with her marriage. Anstee accompanied her husband, a fellow British diplomat, to Singapore and Manila, the Philippines. The marriage began to fail while the couple were based in Manila, and so she took a position with the local United Nations office as an administration officer in order to earn the money for a fare back to England. On her return in 1952, she took a new position with the United Nations.

Anstee served successively as Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in eight countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. From 1974 to 1987 she occupied senior positions at the UN's New York City headquarters. She was also given major responsibilities in a number of disaster relief operations (Bangladesh 1973, Mexican earthquake 1985, Chernobyl nuclear disaster 1991–2, Kuwait burning oil wells 1991–2) as well as special assignments for the Secretary-General to assist countries in dire economic distress (Bolivia 1982–92, Peru 1990–92). In addition, she was involved in the design and implementation of several major reforms of the UN system. She was granted Bolivian citizenship in 1990.