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frankfortstation.com life & arts
the frankfort station | September 21, 2017 | 23
Professor's book examines the empowerment of women
Jason Maholy
Freelance Reporter
A Frankfort woman who
has spent parts of the past
decade traveling the globe
in an effort to gauge the extent
of women's influence in
society and government has
penned a book that details
her findings.
“Empowered by Design”
was published in May and is
the first book written by Meg
Rincker, a political science
professor at Purdue University-Northwest
in Hammond,
Indiana. The work is based
on research Rincker conducted
in the United Kingdom,
Poland and Pakistan – three
nations that are socio-politically
markedly different from
each other – over a period of
10 years to determine where
women are empowered.
“I was looking at countries
all over the world and
trying to understand where
women are politically and
socially empowered, and
where they have a voice and
an impact in their system,”
she explained.
The book's title is inspired
by the concept of quotas,
such as those in Pakistan
and many other nations, that
reserve seats for women in
government at the federal
level. Rincker believes her
research supports the idea
that such quotas are essential
to empowering women in
government – an institution
historically dominated by
men, and which is still imbalanced
in many countries
including the United States.
“If women are empowered
it's because the society has
made a commitment to it,”
Rincker said. “It's by design
that women have equal voice
and representation in politics,
because it's been a place
where they've been traditionally
not as present (as men).”
Rincker's journey – both
physically and educationally
– was inspired by Kathleen
Montgomery, one of her professors
at Illinois Wesleyan
University. Montgomery had
been researching gender and
politics in Eastern Europe after
the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Among Montgomery's conclusions
was that sometimes
when countries become more
democratic, women actually
lose representation and become
less present in politics.
Rincker's project spanned
approximately 10 years,
beginning when she was
working toward her PhD
at Washington University
in St Louis. She started her
field work in Poland, where
she interviewed members of
women's groups and the Polish
equivalent of what in the
U.S. are state representatives
and state senators. Her efforts
at that stage focused on finding
what was most important
for women in a particular political
subdivision or region,
and what were their policy
priorities.
She then asked the same
question to government officials,
and was pleasantly surprised
– if not a bit amused
– by the honesty of male
politicians. Some she spoke
to bluntly told her women
“aren't very good at this
job” and “aren't suited for
politics.” Female elected officials,
on the other hand, frequently
acknowledged they
faced an uphill battle, but expressed
their resolve to dig in
their heels and not be pushed
out of politics.
“I guess I was kind of surprised
how honest and candid
people were about the issue,”
Rincker said. “I was afraid
they might just tell me what
I might want to hear ... that's
not really what I got.”
The experiences in Poland
opened her eyes, and motivated
her to delve further into
the matter.
“Once I started talking to
women and legislators in
Poland, I thought, 'This is
so cool,' but I wanted to go
see what the situation was in
countries around the world,
to see if Poland is unique or
where things might be better,”
she said.
Among her initial findings
was the concept of the “trifecta”
– three aspects of a political
system that reflect the
degree to which women are
empowered. What Rincker
refers to as the three “nodes”
of the trifecta are: the percentage
of women in Parliament;
equality between men and
women in the budget-making
process; and women's
involvement in bureaucratic
agencies and policy-making.
Some of the results surprised
her, at first. It was no
shock the UK meets all three
nodes, but she did not expect
Poland – an ancient state and
former Eastern Bloc country
that was liberated after the
fall of the Berlin Wall – to
be behind Pakistan – an Islamic
republic with a history
of human rights abuses and
military rule – when it comes
to women's empowerment in
politics. Pakistan meets two
nodes – the federal government
reserves seats for women
in Parliament, and women
are involved in executive
policy-making; while Poland
only meets one – women's involvement
in budget-making.
As she continued to research,
she learned Pakistan
has essentially since its
founding in 1947 set aside 18
percent of its Parliamentary
seats for women and has a
history of women serving in
executive positions. Comparatively,
the United States
has no established quotas
for women in government,
and women fill 19 percent of
seats in Congress. The global
average is 28 percent, and in
the Scandinavian countries
it is close to 50 percent, she
added.
“Here in the U.S. we are
still resistant to that idea (of
quotas),” she said. “There
are still a lot of people that
have trouble with a quota for
women in politics.”
Homesick
Traveling to various countries
was an awesome experience
for Rincker, and the
project was educationally
and professionally satisfying.
But going abroad for lengthy
periods of time – sometimes
for a couple weeks, other
times for a couple months –
can be emotionally difficult.
Rincker is married and today
has three children; but was at
various times during her travels
pregnant, and was away
from her young children and
husband, Brian.
“There can be guilt associated
with that... and just missing
them,” she said. “It's just
tough.”
She is grateful for Brian's
support, and noted how it
relates to the concept of her
work.
“It underlines the message
of the book: That equality
comes about when both people
have give and take,” she
said.
Library concert brings the blues to Frankfort
Jason Maholy
Freelance Reporter
Samuel Lozada was 17
years old when he fell in
love with the harmonica.
It was the sound of the
instrument that initially
sparked his interest many
years ago, when he heard an
unfamiliar but captivating
sound coming out of a bar
as he strolled down Lake
Street in the Miller Beach
neighborhood of Gary, Indiana.
Lozada came from a
family of musicians — his
father would take him and
his brothers to gigs — and
had always appreciated
music, but the harmonica
just moved him in a way he
hadn't been moved before.
“That's what I want to
do,” Lozada remembers
thinking after he snuck into
that bar and saw a man in a
wheelchair playing a harmonica.
And that's what he did.
Lozada, who suffers from
severe dyslexia and didn't
learn how to read until he
was an adult, dedicated
himself to teaching himself
how to play the free-reed
instrument. He never took
a lesson, but has parleyed
his drive and passion for
the harmonica into a career
making music and playing
as many as 360 shows a
year.
Lozada and his wife, Janice,
were at the Frankfort
Public Library on Sunday,
Sept. 17, to perform their
“Mo' Beat Blues” show. The
couple – Janice on tambou-
Please see library, 25
Janice
Lozada
(left) and
Samuel
Lozada
perform
their "Mo'
Beat Blues"
show
Sunday,
Sept. 17,
at the
Frankfort
Public
Library.
Jason
Maholy/22nd
Century
Media