Some people might think Deanne de Vries is a risk-taker because she just moved to Basra, Iraq, for a new job with a U.S. government contractor. But the 40-year-old professional doesn't think her job is dangerous or risky. She likes to say that she has less chance of dying in Iraq than in Phoenix, where she last lived in the U.S.

"There are probably more people who die in car accidents in Phoenix in one day than die in a week in the entire country of Iraq," she says in a recent e-mail.

Ms. de Vries is among a small group of executive and professional women who relish working in zones that most American civilians would never visit because of the reputed dangers.

Women make up only a fraction of U.S. executives working abroad. In 2002, only 18% of corporate expatriates were women, up from 16% in 2001, according to a survey of more than 180 companies by GMAC Global Relocation Services based in Warren, N.J.

A 2000 survey by Catalyst, a New York research organization that studies women's career issues, found that beliefs that women can't handle international assignments or don't want them were the chief reasons why more women weren't chosen to go abroad for their companies.

Another assumption that keeps companies from sending women outside U.S. borders is that they're viewed as having more work-life conflicts than men, according to Catalyst. However, equal percentages of surveyed men and women say that work-life issues are difficult. The women expats also report that their gender either helped them or had no effect on how well they functioned overseas.

Current and former women expatriates say they are very effective overseas, and those who are between assignments say they're anxious to return. In fact, 80% of expatriate women say they have never turned down a relocation, compared to 71% of the expatriate men, Catalyst reports.

As more women prove themselves, their ranks will grow to about one-fifth or more of expatriates by 2005, nearly double the percentage from 10 years ago, GMAC reports.

Interviews with Ms. de Vries and other women expatriates like her reveal why more American women are heading to work overseas despite prevailing assumptions.

"People are naturally protective of women and they worry that a foreign country isn't safe for them," says Ms. de Vries, "but the stereotypes in the West about women expatriates aren't correct. They don't reflect what the environment is really like."

Ms. de Vries, 40, who was born in California and has Dutch and U.S. citizenship, works as a senior research-program specialist for Research Triangle Institute, a nonprofit based in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It has a three-year contract to help Iraqis set up civic councils and other democratic governance groups.

Ms. de Vries isn't concerned about her safety. Her employer provides security protection and body armor and restricts travel when necessary, she says.

Learning to be effective in another culture is what draws Ms. de Vries to such assignments. She has spent most of her professional career working overseas, including about seven years in Africa. Ms. de Vries, who found her current job through networking, speaks more than 10 foreign languages and dialects with varying fluency and describes herself as a "citizen of the world."

"I always say that for four years, I was the only redhead in Kenya," she says. "Going out of my culture is, in fact, my comfort zone."

Amy Clark, who just landed her third assignment as an expatriate, could also be described as a global citizen. She expects to start work this month as a manager in Iraq for Custer Battles LLC, a Fairfax, Va., risk-management company with contracts that include providing security at Baghdad Airport. Ms. Clark, a Florida native, applied for the job of contract manager in Iraq via the Internet. "Within five minutes of my sending them a letter, they called me," says the 35-year-old.

The job will interrupt her second year as a graduate student at Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., but since her goal was to work in Iraq, she felt she couldn't turn it down. The work may seem familiar to her. Between 1999 and 2001, she was assistant to the vice president of European operations for military contractor DynCorp in Skopje, capital of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. DynCorp (recently purchased by CSC Corp.) was asked to implement the international police program contract in Kosovo following the 1999 war there.

Ms. Clark had gone to Skopje to become director of its American School after being laid off from a software firm in Boston in 1998. DynCorp's vice president of European operations was the parent of one of her students and when her school stint ended in 1999, he asked her to stay on as his assistant and help set up accounts payable, payroll and other systems for the office. She stayed for three years.

Men dominate the business world in Macedonia, and U.S. women who work in such cultures need to be flexible and avoid having preconceptions about the way they'll get things done, Ms. Clark says. "Women may not be successful in the way they think they will be," she says. "They have to use their resources and learn not to fight the system but to work with it."

She dealt with Macedonian men by asking an influential local man to be her assistant and having him serve as a go-between. "I could have dealt directly with them, but I knew enough that, given our time pressures, I should go with the system," she says. "I may not have been the front person, but I used my resources to find the person who could be."

Coincidentally, Custer Battles, Ms. Clark's employer, provides security protection for Ms. de Vries's employer. The women attended Thunderbird together and are friends, so they plan to celebrate the holidays together in Iraq.

Of course, jobs are available in more hospitable overseas cultures for qualified women expats. The labor force in Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates, is about 80% expatriate and Westerners are welcome. Susan Brown, a former California resident, moved there in August when she was hired as marketing coordinator for the Dubai Women's College. Although Dubai is multicultural and Westerners don't need to speak Arab languages to be successful, adhering to Emirati traditions is helpful, she says.

"For instance, I try to be conservative," says Ms. Brown. "Women can go out in sleeveless shirts and shorts, but I don't. [Covering up] is respectful of the culture. And I would encourage people to study the language. It's not essential, but it's important."

In September 2002, Ms. Brown started looking for a marketing and communications job in the U.S. after being laid off as director of communications for the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. That December, her husband, a U.S. citizen born in Egypt, went to Dubai for a wedding and returned with rosy reports about its economic vitality. By then, the couple had decided to close their Carmel-based retail bath-products store and both were jobless. They began researching opportunities in Dubai via the Internet and went there in February to meet with employers.

Ms. Brown had generated seven interviews, one with the Dubai Women's College. The college hired someone else for that job but contacted Ms. Brown a few months later about a marketing coordinator's role. With one job secure, the couple sold their nonessential belongings and shipped the rest to Dubai, where she started work in August. Ms. Brown's husband, a hospitality executive, expects a Dubai employer to hire him soon.

Like many expats, Ms. Brown receives numerous benefits in addition to her salary. She declined to disclose her salary, but says someone in her type of job in Dubai annually earns between $35,000 and $50,000, which isn't taxed. Her apartment, in a luxury high-rise with tennis courts and a swimming pool on the roof, is provided free and would cost the couple about $1,700 monthly to rent. The college pays for the couple to travel to the U.S. once a year and provided a $9,000 furniture allowance. She receives 56 days off annually for vacation.

Ms. Clark's salary with DynCorp was $60,000 annually, and she received free housing and other per diem pay. She was able to save most of her salary since finding ways to spend money in Macedonia was difficult, she says. Ms. de Vries in Iraq is earning more than $100,000 annually in base salary, hazard and expense pay, and she receives free housing. Ms. Clark, who is still negotiating with Custer Battles, hopes to be paid equally well.

For all three women, however, more rewarding than the pay is the chance to make a positive difference in a foreign country. "You can go overseas and have an incredible impact and be an ambassador for America," says Ms. Clark. "In Macedonia, I was the first American they had ever met. It was a pivotal time."

Profound social change is occurring in Dubai as women begin taking jobs in business, says Ms. Brown. "What's most exciting is that you really feel part of the social change," she says. Instead of staying home, "these women who are getting their educations are going to use [their knowledge], and we are trying to empower them."