by Momoko Nakayama
Dear Supporters of the Ito Foundation USA – Friends of U Tokyo Scholarship,
“Maybe you should wear pants instead of skirts if you’re going to be out late.” When I was younger, my mother would habitually give me this advice as I was heading out the door. Understanding her concern, I used to avoid mini skirts when I knew I would be coming home late – until I learned about the concept of “The personal is political” in my undergraduate gender and sexuality class. Since then, I have come to understand that most social issues, including gender inequality, are not the outcome of individual choices but rather part of a wider systemic injustice. This made me realize that in solving social challenges, it is critical for one to approach them through the “political,” or the “public” lens, to address the defects in our social structure that breeds inequality.
Yet, far too often, the “public” lens is overlooked when it comes to gender issues including sexual assaults, leading to poster campaigns that merely ask victims “to be more alert,” reinforcing society’s intransigence towards gender issues. To solve social problems such as gender inequality, I believe that it should not be up to the marginalized to seek ways of surviving this unjust society, but it should instead be about making systemic changes to the current social fabric. This endeavor to tackle gender inequality with the “public” lens through policy design is what kindled my interest to pursue a dual degree opportunity at Columbia University.
This was the opening to my personal statement that I submitted to FUTI, as I was hoping to secure a way for me to pursue my studies abroad.
Looking back nearly a year later, I can confidently say that the dual-degree combination of GraSPP, Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo and SIPA, the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University has been the perfect corollary for me. Through the dual-degree program, I was able to first cultivate principal knowledge of law, politics, and economics during my first year at GraSPP. This pragmatic knowledge is now enhanced with the capacity of diagnosing the implications for gender in various programs and policies, as I pursued a specialization in gender and public policy during my second year at SIPA. Combining the strong foundations of policy making with an aptitude in gender mainstreaming, I am now able to employ gender analysis as a strategy to illuminate the intersectional impacts of gender as an integral dimension of the design, evaluation, and implementation of policies. Provided that gender relations are intrinsically related to all social domains – from security to climate change and beyond, integrating gender insights into policy design will be key to ensuring that systemic inequality is not perpetuated. I am confident that the competencies acquired through my academic endeavors will prove to be beneficial in any work that I undertake in the future.
However, this is not to say that I have found a grand solution to the original inquiry I started with. On the contrary, I will be graduating from GraSPP and SIPA with more questions, conundrums, and dilemmas than ever before. These quandaries were particularly heightened during the final weeks of my time at Columbia, as Columbia and its students, including myself, found themselves at the epicenter of a global student movement, calling for an end to colonization, occupation, and oppression. Despite the enormous solidarity seen amongst students across the globe, the movement was met by mass arrests of students, and the militarization of our campus. As I witnessed extreme police brutality engulf our campus, I could not help but question; how can it be that this academic institution, that has given me the knowledge and tools around human rights, enable, encourage, and sustain anti-human rights agendas? This contradiction has led me to further questions, which include, but are not limited to – when we talk about “human” rights or “women’s” rights, exactly who is included, and who is not? Have gender experts and scholars, including myself, been complicit in the convergence of gender equality with neoliberal capitalism that facilitates the oppressions that we are trying to address? How can we instrument structural change that challenges existing power relations? And finally, what kinds of “equality” are we seeking to facilitate?
While these questions highlight the tensions between academics and real-world application, despite it all, if there is one thing I could proudly take away from the past year, that would be the importance of embracing ambiguities, ambivalences, and contradictions involved in any academic endeavor. No, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to reach the be-all, end-all solution to your inquiries in just two years. No, your experiences will probably not be full of roses and champagne. And yes, pursuing an academic inquiry will most likely be a constant navigation of ambiguities, complexities, and at times, compromises.
In spite of it all, if anyone is grappling with an intellectual enigma that keeps them up at night, I would highly recommend giving a postgraduate degree, and a study-abroad opportunity a chance. It is through the embracing of ambiguities and ambivalences involved in the process of “learning” that we can tease out the tensions and struggles to collectively seek creative ways of promoting transformative change. Afterall, the role of academia is to engage, to exhort, to establish, to influence. And thus, it is my hope that everyone is given the opportunity to pursue their inquisitive spirit, which I believe will be the building blocks for optimistic change.
I would like to take this time to convey my deepest gratitude to Ito Foundation USA, as well as Friends of U Tokyo for your generous support throughout my time at Columbia University. It was with your support that I was able to pursue my academic as well as professional ambition in the US, and I am truly honored and humbled to have been chosen as a recipient. As mentioned in my application statement, going forward, my hope is to draw on the global reach of peers I met through my time at Columbia University and the University of Tokyo to become a catalyst in embedding gender mainstreaming across sectors, enhancing coordination among local, national, and global actors as we play our part in making a better, safer, and just world. I am committed to making transformative changes through gender-mainstreamed policy making, and through it, I hope to return the support I received. Again, I extend my sincerest gratitude for your kindness, generosity, and support.
With warmest regards,
Momoko Nakayama – Columbia University ‘24, MIA
