"I'm not really pushing for an answer," says Lillian Glidden '05 about the work she conducted on women's voting rights in Bahrain. "I'm just trying to find out what's true." Glidden's internship with the National Foundation for Women Legislators in Washington, D.C., and her work in the Middle Eastern nation of Bahrain provided the germ of a research idea that may shed light on issues involving women's political participation in the Middle East. Her internship was supported by a Boehm Coster Grant, administered through the career services office.
|
Fran and Robert '35 Boehm of New York City established the grant as a living memorial to their daughter, Nancy Boehm Coster, who strongly supported the need for women to become active public-policy leaders. The grant supports students, mainly women, interested in exploring public-policy issues through internships. Each year, career services gives out approximately $24,000 to students who travel the world pursuing a variety of interests.
Glidden, a native of North Berwick, Maine, helped coordinate international policy for the Washington Foundation and also worked to organize a delegation of U.S. women legislators to Bahrain, whose government had recently granted women the right to vote and run in parliamentary elections. "I took much of what I learned in Bahrain and created a senior honors thesis," says the Arabic and government major.
According to Glidden, a Boehm Coster Grant is important because, "it allowed me, a financial aid student, to work at an unpaid internship, away from home, on something I was truly interested in. If it wasn't for this funding, I would have had to find a paying job, which probably wouldn't have fostered my interests."
Working with Associate Professor of Government Lisa Baldez and other faculty members in the department, Glidden's experience in Bahrain gave her the idea for an independent research project. In turn, that research became her honors thesis, "Women's Political Participation in the Arab World."
Glidden observed that researchers have attributed low rates of democratic participation in the Middle East, particularly among women, to cultural traditions at the domestic level, but she sees larger forces at work. Her thesis work analyzes internal and external political factors that she believes help shape participation. "I'm trying to put a rational framework on a region about which little is understood," she says.
According to Baldez, her work is important because "she's tackling a big question, but the way she's going about it through quantitative analysis is narrow enough that she can actually do the research and generate results within a couple of months."
Emanuel "Skip" Sturman '70, director of the career services office, says that Boehm Coster internships frequently result in life-changing experiences for students. These experiences translate into scholarship that has the potential to advance important policy work.
Sturman appreciates the Boehms' generosity and the focus of their gift.
"What really makes this program special are the people behind the grant, the Boehms, who are willing to make generous contributions to help Dartmouth students discover new worlds and subsequently play leadership roles in making a difference in society," he says. "The Boehms, who are both in their nineties, try to visit Hanover each spring to meet grant recipients and hear about their experiences. They are shining examples of Dartmouth alumni who strongly believe in giving back and supporting internship experiences as testing opportunities for students."
By SUSAN KNAPP
Questions or comments about this article? We welcome your feedback.
