Fall 2010 - Asian University for Women

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22 OCTOBER 2010 VOL. 4, NO. 2 Condoleezza Rice: An Academic at Heart It is safe to say that Condoleezza Rice has shattered a fair number of glass ceilings in her day. But of all the challenging posts she has held in her illustrious career—U.S. Secretary of State, senior advisor on Soviet and Eastern European affairs for the White House during the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the first woman and only the second African-American to serve as National Security Advisor—she says it was a job in academia, not government, that presented her biggest professional challenge. Dr. Rice says she was taken aback when she first learned of her nomination to be provost of Stanford University; she was the youngest and the first African-American female to hold the post. Then just 38 years old, she was a lightweight contender in the boxing ring of academic hierarchies. “I remember saying to the communications director, ‘Well, I’ve never even been a department chair,’” she says. When he responded that she had, however, managed U.S.-Soviet relations, Dr. Rice replied, laughing: “‘Yes, but [Soviet General Secretary] Mikhail Gorbachev doesn’t have tenure.’” Dr. Rice appears more comfortable characterizing herself as an academic than a politician; she describes the political accomplishments of her career as extended departures from what was an otherwise natural trajectory into the academic world. “I never considered Washington a permanent home,” she explains when discussing her desire to return to academia. Dr. Rice’s devotion to education stretches back to her grandfather, who was the first person in her family to earn a university degree. He saved up the profits from his cotton sales to pursue “book-learning,” not an easy feat for a black man living in the segregated South. When his funds ran out, he obtained a scholarship with the stipulation he become a Presbyterian minister. Henceforth, a reverence for both education and the Presbyterian Church went hand-in-hand in the Rice household. Her family has been college-educated ever since. Given her passion for education, it is no surprise that Dr. Rice supports the Asian University for Women. Since becoming a Patron of the University in 2009, she has brought her considerable knowledge of both international affairs and universities to bear, a powerful combination in AUW’s ambitious quest to change the landscape of women’s higher education in Asia. In doing so, Dr. Rice has also served as a role model to the many AUW students who draw inspiration from her life path. Dr. Rice was born in the segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama, into the heart of the civil rights struggle. Throughout her childhood the city was ravaged by violent protests; in 1963, one of her friends died in the infamous Birmingham “… my parents and my friends’ parents really raised us to believe that we could do anything we wanted to do and be anything we wanted to be, and that the key to it was to get a good education.” church bombing that killed four little girls on a Sunday morning. In the midst of this political and social turmoil, the young Condoleezza Rice remained devoted to her studies, encouraged by parents who insisted that education was the gateway to a better life. “The remarkable thing to me is that despite the circumstances of Birmingham my parents and my friends’ parents really raised us to believe that we could do anything we wanted to do and be anything we wanted to be, and that the key to it was to get a good education,” she says. Dr. Rice enrolled in the University of Denver as an undergraduate and originally pursued a major in music with hopes of becoming a concert pianist. She had recently come to the realization that her future as a great pianist was a limited one—“I knew that I might end up teaching 13-year-olds to murder Beethoven,” she jokes—when she took a course with Soviet specialist Josef Korbel, who also happened to be the father of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. This “flash of a class” sparked an enduring love for political science and impressed upon Dr. Rice a lifelong passion for teaching. “I love being a professor because you can really open up worlds to your students and make them see things differently.… And I suspect that at some point Dr. Korbel saw that light go on in me,” she says. Dr. Rice went on to become a professor of political science at Stanford University—a position she holds today—and then provost. While at Stanford she met Brent Scowcroft, who had served as Gerald Ford’s National Security Advisor. He later appointed Dr. Rice to the George H. W. Bush’s National Security Council as the Special Assistant to the President for Soviet affairs, and so began a meteoric political career. Still, Dr. Rice always returned to her roots. She explains: “I belong in a university … every time I go to government and come back to the university I think I strengthen and make deeper my ability to reach students and teach, and every time I go back into government, I’ve taken the opportunity in the academy to reflect and develop new ideas.” She understands acutely the vital role of an institution like AUW in the developing world. “I believe if you want to do something about uncontrolled population growth, then educate women and they won’t have children at age 12. If you want to do something about human trafficking, educate women and they won’t get into that circumstance. If you want to do something about poverty, educate women and they will create circumstances to educate their daughters and their sons and so on and so on. I think education of women internationally is really the key to a much better world, period,” she says. She points to the ripple effect AUW can have throughout the region. “I suspect that when these daughters come back into their villages and into their towns, and people see what’s happened, more and more families will want their daughters to have this kind of opportunity.” Though Dr. Rice urges students at AUW to steel themselves against the challenges they may face on their paths toward becoming leaders in the region, she also cautions them against planning every step along the way. Back at Stanford, her students often ask her how they can become the next Secretary of State. “You start as a failed piano major,” she says. CONDOLEEZZA RICE
AUW PATRONS 23 Cherie Blair: Passing It Forward AUW Patron Cherie Blair speaks about the importance of education in her own life and for the future of Asia. Cherie Blair waits patiently while a line of people forms before her, jostling to have their photograph taken with the leading human rights activist and wife of Britain’s former Prime Minister, Tony Blair. She betrays few traces of jet lag as she poses diligently for photograph after photograph with event participants, reporters, staff members, and drivers. She even allows the photographers behind the lenses to switch places so that they too can collect their personal mementos of her visit. Mrs. Blair is in Bangladesh to launch the Cherie Blair Fellowships at the Asian University for Women (AUW). During her brief stay in the capital before continuing to the southern port city of Chittagong where the University is located, she meets various dignitaries to spread awareness about AUW. Wherever she goes, a phalanx of photographers, security officers, and bystanders follows; throughout it all, Mrs. Blair handles the constant attention with the grace of someone accustomed to being in the spotlight and the frankness of someone who has never forgotten her roots. Mrs. Blair was raised by her mother and grandmother in a working-class setting in Liverpool. Her father, an actor, abandoned their family when she was a child. Neither her mother nor her grandmother could attend school past the age of 14; nevertheless, Mrs. Blair was raised in a household that placed the utmost importance on obtaining an education. She attributes her subsequent professional accomplishments and even her personal successes to the education she received. And she remains keenly aware of the role her mother and grandmother played in allowing her to pursue that education. “They made very many personal sacrifices to ensure that my sister and I had the education that neither of them had the opportunity to have, even though both of them were intelligent women. And there are many, many women around the world today who had potential that wasn’t realized, who hope [for that education] for their daughters and granddaughters as well as for their sons and grandsons,” Mrs. Blair says. While Mrs. Blair acknowledges that boys also face difficulties in pursuing an education— crippled by the predictable culprits of poverty and limited opportunities—she says that women face the additional challenge of gender discrimination in traditionally male-dominated circumstances.” societies. Although boys are certainly deserving of education initiatives, Mrs. Blair is first and foremost drawn to the plight of women who encounter a wider range of obstacles than their male counterparts. “Just to establish that level playing field against the backdrop of centuries of disadvantages, we have to do something to help girls catch up,” she says. Given her strong belief in empowering women worldwide, it should come as no surprise that Mrs. Blair was drawn to the Asian University for Women. She became a Patron of AUW in early 2009 and has traveled the globe raising support for the University ever since. Beyond extending access to higher education to more women, Mrs. Blair points to the leadership training AUW offers as the key to catapulting gender relations into the future. She comments: “Education for all is very important, but I also think that leaders are important. And the fact that the AUW is unashamedly elitist in that sense, in that it’s looking for the elite talent of the region … I applaud that. But it is not elitist of course in the traditional sense, because it does not seek to educate the rich and the fortunate. In fact, its mission is very determinedly to identify those whose potential for leadership would otherwise go unrealized because of their economic circumstances.” In the fall of 2008, Mrs. Blair set up the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, a London-based organization that seeks to provide female entrepreneurs in Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa with access to basic and advanced training in finance and development. Like the Asian University for Women, the Foundation believes that women, as half of the population of any given country, represent a critical vehicle for development. By granting women the power to transform their economic status, AUW and the Foundation aim to give women a voice where previously there was silence, and a way where previously there was only a will. Mrs. Blair’s relentless support for AUW reveals a deeper and more personal commitment to the University, one that stems from an appreciation of the role that education has played in her own life. She was the first person in her family to attend university and was accepted by the London School of Economics (LSE) on full scholarship. “I understood that the quid pro quo for … [my university education] is that I should try to give something back for the advantages that essentially other people paid for me to have,” she says. Mrs. Blair’s education at LSE was certainly the stepping stone for an extraordinary career that continues today. Growing up in England in the “… [AUW’s] mission is very determinedly to identify those whose potential for leadership would otherwise go unrealized because of their economic CHERIE BLAIR 1960s and 1970s, Mrs. Blair says that she was always aware that her professional success depended on out-performing her male classmates. It just so happened she had the mind to do so. She graduated university with First Class Honors in 1976 and earned the top mark in the Bar exam for that year. In 1995, she became a Queen’s Counsel and later a part-time judge. In 2000, she and a number of other prominent barristers established the Matrix Chambers, a legal practice with a focus on human rights and public law. Meanwhile, she raised four children with her husband. When praised for her ability to juggle a family with a successful legal career, Mrs. Blair demurs, saying: “I think the superwomen actually are women like my mum and grandmother who without access to resources, both education and economic, brought up their families and instilled in their children the ambition to do something … Whenever I have a hard time, I think how much harder it was for my own mother.” As the photo session comes to a close, Mrs. Blair is bustled toward a waiting car. She will next travel to Chittagong to award her fellowships to ten AUW students who have been selected on the basis of their extraordinary academic performances and strong leadership skills. Once in Chittagong, she will greet her fellows with her trademark bear hug, the expressions on each of their faces reflecting the magnitude of the moment. She may not consider herself a superwoman, but Mrs. Blair certainly has no trouble masquerading as one.
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Fall 2010 - Asian University for Women

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