Geeta Rao Gupta, an Indian-American, is sworn in as an ambassador for international women’s issues

Geeta Rao Gupta, an Indian-American, was sworn in by US Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday to serve as the State Department’s Ambassador at Large for Global Women’s Issues. By a vote of 51 to 47, the US Senate approved Gupta for the job in May of this year.

Gupta asserts that there are several injustices and indignities experienced by women around the globe that prevent them from fully participating in the economy. Their movement is limited by the fact that they often face threats to their safety and live in dread of violence.

She said at her confirmation hearing last year that women are especially susceptible in times of war, calamities, and humanitarian disasters, both in terms of their safety and their ability to care for and feed their family.

She identified as a first-generation immigrant and said, “I come from a family of professional women who have all dedicated their lives to serving their communities, and from a family of men who have fully supported them.”

She told legislators that she conducted her dissertation thesis on the obstacles women encounter in pursuing careers in India, which eventually inspired her to pursue a profession aimed at redressing the disparities women face. She remarked, “That became both my profession and my passion.”

I have seen women use the limited resources they have to care for their families and protect others, said Gupta, citing examples of women in Liberia who bravely mobilized against great odds to demand peace for their families and communities and female entrepreneurs in Kenya and India who maintain small businesses despite limited access to financial services.

The second Gentleman, her husband Arvind Gupta, their daughter Nayna Gupta, Manjuli Maheshwari, her sister-in-law, and Carolina Rojas, a close family friend, were all present for the short ceremony of swearing.

She formerly held the positions of Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women. Gupta held the positions of senior fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and deputy executive director at UNICEF.

Prior to that, for more than a decade, Gupta served as president of the worldwide Centre for Research on Women, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to use research to influence policies and initiatives for worldwide development that will empower women and girls.