Women in Power About Aspen
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No. 04 ASPEN.REVIEW 2017 CENTRAL EUROPE COVER STORIES Małgorzata Fidelis, Konrad Niklewicz, Dita Přikrylová, Matthew Qvortrup, Iveta Radičová POLITICS Andrii Portnov ECONOMY Ivan Mikloš CULTURE Michał Lubina INTERVIEW Agnieszka Holland, Teddy Cruz 9 771805 679005 No. 04/2017 Women — in Power Women in Power Women Quo— Vadis, Central and Eastern Europe? — Thinking Architecture without Buildings About Aspen Aspen Review Central Europe quarterly presents current issues to the general public in the Aspenian way by adopting unusual approaches and unique viewpoints, by publishing analyses, interviews and commentaries by world-renowned professionals as well as Central European journalists and scholars. The Aspen Review is published by the Aspen Institute Central Europe. Aspen Institute Central Europe is a partner of the global Aspen network and serves as an independent platform where political, business, and non-prof-it leaders, as well as personalities from art, media, sports and science, can interact. The Institute facilitates interdisciplinary, regional cooperation, and supports young leaders in their development. The core of the Institute’s activities focuses on leadership seminars, expert meetings, and public conferences, all of which are held in a neutral manner to encourage open debate. The Institute’s Programs are divided into three areas: — Leadership Program offers educational and networking projects for outstanding young Central European professionals. Aspen Young Leaders Program brings together emerging and experienced leaders for four days of workshops, debates, and networking activities. — Policy Program enables expert discussions that support strategic thinking and interdisciplinary approach in topics as digital agenda, cities’ development and creative placemaking, art & business, education, as well as transatlantic and Visegrad cooperation. — Public Program aspires to present challenging ideas at public events, such as Aspen Annual Conference that convenes high-profile guests from all over the world to discuss current affairs, and via Aspen Review Central Europe. ASPEN.REVIEW CREDITS ADVISORY BOARD Walter Isaacson (co-chairman), Michael Žantovský (co-chairman), Yuri Andrukhovych, Piotr Buras, Krzysztof Czyżewski, Tomáš Klvaňa, Kai-Olaf Lang, Zbigniew Pełczyński, Petr Pithart, Jacques Rupnik, Mariusz Szczygieł, Monika Sznajderman, Martin Šimečka EDITORIAL BOARD Tomáš Vrba (chairman), Luděk Bednář, Adam Černý, Martin Ehl, Roman Joch, Kateřina Šafaříková, Michal Vašečka EDITORS Aleksander Kaczorowski (editor-in-chief), Robert Schuster (managing editor) TRANSLATORS Tomasz Bieroń, Julia Sherwood, Peter Sherwood ART DIRECTION Concept & Design: Touch Branding Cover © 2017; Neil Johnston (Touch Branding) PUBLISHING EDITOR Jenda Žáček PUBLISHED BY Aspen Institute Central Europe Palackého 1, CZ 110 00 Prague [email protected] AspenInstituteCE.org Year VI No. 04/2017 ISSN 1805-6806 (Print) ISSN 2570-6217 (Online) — Photos without credit: Aspen Review Archive Women In Power No. 04 2017 ASPEN.REVIEW CONTENTS 04 FOREWORD Empowering Women Jiří Schneider 06 EDITORIAL The Misfits Aleksander Kaczorowski 08 Marching with Women: Then and Now Małgorzata Fidelis 17 Women in Politics Iveta Radičová 26 Women in Central European Politics. Seen but Not Heard? Konrad Niklewicz 32 Czechitas, or Why There Is a Lack of IT in Women Rather Than of Women in IT Dita Přikrylová 40 COMMENT Merkel’s Mean Girls Matthew Qvortrup 44 INTERVIEW with Agnieszka Holland: At the thought of Poland leaving the EU I get shivers down my spine Łukasz Grzesiczak 50 What Is the Shape of Central Europe Robert Schuster 58 Defending a Europe Whole and Free Kevin J. McNamara, Whitney Morgan McNamara 66 “De-Communization” and Legislating History in Post-Maidan Ukraine Andrii Portnov 72 Between Immanence and Rupture. Reformism as a Source of European Culture Tadeusz Bartoś 80 COMMENT A Hundred Years since the Birth of the Beast Roman Joch 84 Quo Vadis, Central and Eastern Europe? Ivan Mikloš 90 INTERVIEW with Teddy Cruz: Thinking Architecture without Buildings Filip Šenk 98 What If the V4 Countries Were Not Members of the European Union? András Inotai 106 Migration into Unemployment and the Fallacy of the Dogma of Equality Andreas Unterberger 116 COMMENT The Visegrad Group Needs the European Union for the Sake of Its Own Modernization Zoltán Kiszelly 121 A Chronicle of a Certain Superstition Aleksander Kaczorowski 128 The Ruler of Orbánistan Robert Schuster 136 The (American) Empire Strikes Back Michał Lubina 140 Myth over Math Ben Cunningham ASPEN.REVIEW FOREWORD Em power- ingWo men! Dear Readers, In his article, in remembrance of the 1917 revolution in Russia and temptations of communist ideology, Roman Joch mentioned an episode of an unsuccessful resistance against Bolsheviks by cadets and women volunteers. Communism–believed to liberate the oppressed and to emancipate women– started by killing just women and children. What is the relationship between women and power? Some people tend to believe women are less inclined to hard power and violence. Yet al- ready in Greek mythology power struggles involved female goddesses em- ploying the whole scale of power arsenal from soft persuasion to hard force. In 1913, a feminist Helena Swanwick wrote: “I wish to disclaim altogether the kind of assumption…. that men have been the barbarians who loved physical force, and that women alone were civilised and civilising. There are no signs of this in literature or history.” (The Future of the Women’s Movement) The best-known examples of women political leaders in recent history are Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, or Benazir Bhutto. In Europe today, it is Angela Merkel who has just won her fourth term as German chancellor. As the Merkel phenomenon is remarkable and excep- tional, we have asked Matthew Qvortrup, an author of her biography, to write about her leadership style. 04 Aspen.Review/EmpoweringWomen Em power- ingWo men! The fact is that women are underrepresented in traditional functions and institutions of power, in politics and business. During the second half of the 20th century there were less than 4 percent women at the helm of their countries. Although a number of women in managerial positions in the US (less in Europe) has increased in that period, an average ratio of women in national parliaments still appears around 15 percent. In this context, we are proud to feature a piece by Dita Přikrylová, our Young Leaders Program Alumna, presenting Czechitas that she founded to break a gender barrier in IT education. We keep our focus on Central Europe. Robert Schuster asks to what extent Central Europe presents a microcosm of the whole Europe. Ivan Mik- loš claims that it is “fundamentally important for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to remain within the core of a multi-track European Union” and for Zsoltán Kiszelly the EU is the best available framework for modernization for Visegrad countries. During the upcoming international conference “The Shape of (Cen- tral) Europe” we will present expert findings regarding competitiveness, ed- ucation, governance, security, and quality of life to facilitate more structured and fact-based debate about the role Central Europe could play in shaping Europe’s future. JIŘÍ SCHNEIDER Executive Director 05 ASPEN.REVIEW EDITORIAL The Misfits What is the classic European literature really about? According to Hans Mayer, author of the book The Misfits [Außenseiter], it is a disguised story about discrimination and exclusion told by homosexuals, women, and Jews. Mayer, an outstanding German literary scholar (1907-2001), argued his claim using the example of the life and works of such diverse figures as Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, Marcel Proust and Heinrich Heine, Jean Genet and Andre Gide, George Eliot, George Sand, Piotr Tchaikovsky, and many, many others. In his view, this 19th-century eruption of artistic talents was not associated with the growing emancipation of societies but on the contrary—with discrimination of individuals regarded as anti-social by the society endowed with ever-increasing rights. This was the dialectics of the Enlightenment, which, as Mayer writes, “stumbled on misfits.” Although the 19th century was an age of a remarkable development of economic freedom and political liberties, in the area of im- plementing the ideal of “rooting out emotional prejudices against people of different races, religions, customs or moralities” promoted by the Enlight- enment philosophers, “the bourgeois society in the 19th and 20th century re- gressed.” It happened because “the demolished feudal hierarchy had to be re- placed with a new one, of bourgeois nature. The new hierarchy transformed the woman into a parasitic slave, who does not and should not earn mon- ey. It was opposed to the emancipation of the Jews through education and wealth. Hostile to strangers from the very start, it was becoming more and more nationalist. A distinction was introduced between dignified and worth- less life. Being different in any way became a provocation.” 06 Aspen.Review/TheMisfits Consequently, the people who could have expected to gain the most from the implementation of the libertarian Enlightenment causes (mean- ing women, whose aspirations went beyond becoming someone’s wife and mother; homosexuals faithful to their preferences; and Jews who decided to stop being Jews) in the next 150 years fell victim to repressions incomparable to anything which had taken place before in the history of Western Europe.