The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Mershon professor examines role of women in international politics.Mershon professor examines role of women in international politics -- Conference to consider Cold War on periphery -- Calendar of Events -- New mission, vision for International Affairs

Becker, Cathy

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Mershon MemoA newsletter of the Mershon Center for International Security StudiesSpring 2008              Vol. 2, Issue 3Twenty years ago, few scholars considered the role of women in national se-curity issues because most world leaders were male.  Today, with Angela Merkel as prime minister of Ger-many, Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile, and Hill-ary Rodham Clinton running for U.S. commander in chief, new attention is being paid to women in public offi ce.Pamela Paxton, Mershon Center affi liate and Associ-ate Professor of Sociology and Political Science at The Ohio State University, is one of those paying new attention to women with political power.  Paxton and Melanie Hughes, a doctoral student in sociology at Ohio State, co-authored Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective (Sage, 2007).Paxton and Hughes’ book explores measurements of gender in politics using broad statistical overviews and case studies from around the world.  According to their research, the United States ranks in the “middle of the pack” when it comes to po-litical equality for women. Paxton outlined several ways to measure gender equality in politics such as calculating the proportion of women in a country’s legis-lature or parliament, looking for female heads of state, or noting the year when women got the right to vote.  Internationally, Paxton and Hughes argue, women have made progress in all areas of political decision making in the past century.  However, they still have a long way to go to achieve equality with men in most countries. “Many people think of Scandinavian countries as the most gender-equal glob-ally, and they are partially right,” Paxton said.  But Rwanda ranks highest for number of women in posi-tions of political power at 49 percent, while Sweden comes in second at 47 percent. Women make up 16 percent of Congress in the United States.Another surprise is that Switzerland rates low on the measure of women’s suf-frage, which was not granted until 1971.  Some of the slowest countries to allow women the right to vote in-clude Kuwait, which granted suffrage in 2005, and Saudi Arabia, which still does not allow women to vote. Americans may not be as favorable toward women as one may think, Paxton Mershon professor examines role of women in international politicsConference to consider Cold War on peripheryPamela Paxton, Mershon Center affi liate and Associate Professor of Sociology and Political Science at The Ohio State University, is author with Melanie Hughes of Women, Politics and Power: A Global Perspective.  The book provides a detailed introduction to women’s political representation across a wide range of countries and regions.In his 1972 essay “The Diffusion of Power,” Walt Rostow noted the shift in world power away from Washington and Moscow. Particularly concerned with the developing world, he asked a question that has yet to be answered: Are men capable of organizing this fragile global community of diffusing power in reason-ably stable and peaceful ways, or will the diffusion of power lead to more vio-lence and disorder than we already know?On April 18-19, the Mer-shon Center for International Security Studies will exam-ine this question through a conference on “Cold War as the Periphery: New Perspec-tives on Global Change in the 1960s and 1970s.”The conference is orga-nized by Ursula Gurney, Ryan Irwin, and Paul Chamberlin, all doctoral students in his-tory, with the help of Ralph D. Mershon Professor of History Robert McMahon.“Cold War as the Pe-riphery” will explore how See Conference on back page See Women on back page2Mershon Center for International Security StudiesSunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayMARCH             24Spring quarter begins25 26 27 2812 p.m., Mershon 120Sally Marks2930 31 APRIL                  1 2 312 p.m., Mershon 120Fawaz Gerges43:30 p.m., Mershon 120Richard Bauman56 7 812 p.m., Mershon 120Shireen Hunter9 10 11 1213 14 15 1612 p.m., Mershon 120Ussama Makdisi17 18ConferenceCold War as the Periphery19ConferenceCold War as the Periphery20 21 22 23 24 25 2627 28 2912 p.m., Mershon 120David Siegel30 MAY                    112 p.m., Mershon 120Fred Lawson2 34 5 612 p.m., Mershon 120M.J. Peterson7 8 912 p.m., Mershon 120Maud Mandel1011 12 13 1412 p.m., Mershon 120Anthony Cordesman1512 p.m., Mershon 120Amaney Jamal16 1718 19 20 21 22 233:30 p.m., Mershon 120Nita Rudra2425 26Memorial Day27 28 29 30Last day of classes31For more information and to reserve your spot, please see the Mershon Center website at mershoncenter.osu.eduMershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH  43201, (614) 292-16813Spring 2008 Calendar of EventsFriday, March 28, 2008Sally MarksIndependent Diplomatic Historian“Refl ections on the Balance of Power”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120Friday, April 4, 2008Richard BaumanDistinguished Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Communication & Culture, and Anthropology, Indiana University in Bloomington“‘It’s Not a Telescope, It’s a Telephone’: Encounters with the Telephone on Early Commercial Sound Recordings”3:30 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120Tuesday, April 8, 2008Shireen HunterVisiting Professor, Georgetown UniversityDistinguished Scholar, Center for Strategic and International Studies“Islam and Democracy: Are They Compatible?”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120MarksBaumanHunterThursday, April 3, 2008Fawaz GergesChristian A. Johnson Chair in International Affairs and Arab and Muslim PoliticsSarah Lawrence College“The Future of Islamist Militancy: A Theoretical and Historical Footnote”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120GergesWednesday, April 16, 2008Ussama MakdisiAssociate Professor of HistoryRice University “Anti-Americanism in the Arab World: A Brief History”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120MakdisiThursday, May 1, 2008Fred LawsonRice Professor of Government, Mills College“Syria’s Muslim Brothers: Shifting Fortunes, Changing Platforms”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120 LawsonWednesday, May 14, 2008Anthony CordesmanArleigh A. Burke Chair in StrategyCenter for Strategic and International Studies“The Changing Nature of the Afghan-Pakistan War”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120Friday, May 9, 2008Maud MandelAssociate Professor of History and Judaic StudiesBrown University“‘Each Algerian Must Feel Palestinian’: 1967, 1968, and Muslim/Jewish Relations in France”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120 MandelFriday, May 23, 2008Nita RudraAssistant Professor of International AffairsUniversity of Pittsburgh “Have Governments Gone Too Far?”3:30 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120RudraFor more information and to reserve your spot, please see the Mershon Center website at mershoncenter.osu.eduMershon Center for International Security Studies, 1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH  43201, (614) 292-1681CordesmanThursday, May 15, 2008Amaney JamalAssistant Professor of PoliticsPrinceton University“Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120JamalTuesday, April 29, 2008David SiegelAssistant Professor of Political ScienceFlorida State University“Repression, Social Networks, and Collective Action”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120SiegelTuesday, May 6, 2008M.J. PetersonProfessor of Political Science University of Massachusetts-Amherst “The Flows of Authority in Intergovernmental Organizations”12 p.m., Mershon Center Room 120 Peterson1501 Neil Ave.Columbus, OH  43201www.mershoncenter.osu.eduNew mission, vision for International Affairs International activities are an every-day occurrence at The Ohio State Uni-versity. By strategically moving toward internationalizing the university, Ohio State’s accomplishments will be shared with communities reaching beyond national and cultural boundaries. The Offi ce of International Affairs at Ohio State serves as the institutional anchor for enhancing and disseminat-ing knowledge about the regions, cul-tures, languages and signifi cant issues of the world. To help the university reach its po-tential, International Affairs recently developed a new mission and vision statement that outlines its activities and lays the groundwork for future growth.MissionThe Offi ce of International Affairs:• engages Ohio State’s students and faculty in educational and research experiences internationally;• facilitates the integration of inter-national students and scholars into Ohio State’s world of knowledge;• fosters excellence in the study of languages, the history of arts and cul-tures and their societies, and interna-tional security; and• provides information and access to Ohio State’s academic expertise for the benefi t of communities the world over.VisionThe Ohio State community relies on the unique international expertise of the Offi ce of International Affairs to provide it with information and access to pre-mier opportunities in a global setting.For more information about inter-national activities at Ohio State, visit http://oia.osu.edu.this diffusion of power transformed global politics in the 1960s and be-yond.  Among the participants are Mark Atwood Lawrence, Associate Professor of History at University of Texas-Austin, and author of Constructing Vietnam: The United States, Europe, and the Making of the Cold War in Indochina (California, forthcoming).The conference will offer fresh insight into issues of racial justice, national sovereignty, and human rights. Continued from Page 1ConferenceContinued from Page 1Womensaid.  According to her research, when asked if they had only one child would they prefer a boy or a girl, 60 percent of U.S. citizens said they would prefer a boy.  This percentage is higher than even China, where 40 percent of those surveyed preferred a male child.Why do some countries exemplify greater gender equality than others?  The reasons are varied, including cul-tural perceptions and socialization pat-terns, Paxton said.  She pointed out the effectiveness of gender quotas in some countries, such as Iraq, Argentina, and Rwanda.  In Iraq, the number of women in the legislature skyrocketed from 7 percent to 25 percent due to effective gender quotas in the new constitution.  While legislation may help even political participation in some coun-tries, one inhibiting factor for women is the lack of political ambition, Paxton said.  Studies have shown that from a population of equally qualifi ed men and women, a larger number of men than women say they would run for political offi ce and actually do run for offi ce. 

Mershon Memo: A newsletter of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies

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Mershon Memo: A newsletter of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies

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