Investing in research on women: the Lozoff Award

recognizes two graduate students

Lori Nishiura Mackenzie on 07/05/10 at 8:00 am
In 2002 the Lozoff family took noteworthy action – they invested in
research on women. Dr. Milton Lozoff and his daughters and their
families established an annual prize in memory of their mother,
Marjorie Lozoff.

Why is this action noteworthy? An American Viewpoint opinion poll of

registered voters found the overwhelming majority of both men and
women do not believe there is a need to direct giving specifically to
women; out of 11 categories of recipients only 3 percent said women
should benefit more from charitable contributions than they do now.
The Lozoff family chose not to follow what the majority of the people
believe and instead, invested in what they know works: “furthering
women’s development for the benefit of women, men, children, and
society.”
Marjorie Lozoff at Stanford

The Marjorie Lozoff Award for Research on Women and Gender is given to a graduate student conducting research
on issues related to Lozoff’s interests, including but not limited to reproductive rights for women, equal rights for
women, and protections for women, aging, and the family, with preference for research in the social sciences and
the professions such as medicine and law.

This year, the Clayman Institute and Lozoff family awarded two prizes. The 2010 winners wrote thought-provoking
essays on international topics.

Hilary Chart’s essay, Child Care and the Commodification of “Women’s Work” in
Botswana: new perspectives on three critiques of capitalism, results from her research
in and around Botswana’s capital city of Gaborone. A graduate student in the
department of Anthropology, Chart studies women’s “micro-enterprise,” and in
particular the rapid expansion of for-profit daycare centers, noting the impact of
commodification on what was formerly unremunerated “women’s work.” Chart
demonstrates how markets can be understood as complex mechanisms for the social
negotiation of value.

“It is an honor, but also a huge source of encouragement to have this research
recognized. So often scholarship focusing on women is marginalized as only for Hilary Chart, 2010
women,” said Chart of the prize. “The Lozoff family and the Clayman Institute remind us Lozoff Award Winner
how such research contributes to both social justice and our understanding of the world
more generally. I am grateful for their support, and inspired to continue my work in the
spirit of Marjorie’s tremendous legacy.”
 Rikhil Bhavnani, a graduate student in the department of Political Science, asked if electoral
quotas work after they are withdrawn. Bhavnani looked at evidence from a natural
experiment in India, where randomly chosen seats in local legislatures are set aside for
women, one election at a time. His findings? Women have five times the likelihood of
winning office when the constituency was reserved for women in the previous election.
While the mechanisms require further investigation, Bhavnani believes that reservations
work in part by inducting “new” women into politics, and by giving parties the opportunity
to learn that women can win elections.

Bhavnani will be a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at
Rikhil Bhavani, 2010 Princeton University next year and will start as an Assistant Professor at the University of
Lozoff Award Winner Wisconsin-Madison in the Fall of 2011. “Do Electoral Quotas Work after They Are
Withdrawn? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in India” was published in the American
Political Science Review. “I am honored to be a recipient of the Lozoff Prize, and was delighted to meet Lozoff family
and learn about Marjorie’s remarkable accomplishments at the Awards Luncheon,” said Bhavnani. “By honoring her
memory and her legacy, the Prize will inspire a new generation of scholars to study issues of critical importance to
women and society.”

The awards are given at an annual lunch with family members, and filled with banter, reunion and honoring of the
latest prize winners. One of the Lozoff’s daughters asked the recipients about their families. She said her mother would
have wanted to know the person behind the scholarship.

In her long life, Lozoff got acquainted with many young students, supporting their education and having as part of the
family. Born in 1916, Marjorie Lozoff earned her MA from the School of Social Work at the University of Chicago in
1941. In addition to raising three children, Lozoff was an author, lecturer, social worker and researcher. A move to
California brought Lozoff to Stanford’s Institute for the Study of Human Problems and the department of Psychiatry,
where she researched student development and student life.

Looking around the luncheon at the Lozoff family, one would see daughters mix with friends such that an outsider
would have difficulty distinguishing the two. To Marjorie Lozoff, family was a gift to be shared. Again, noteworthy
action taken in honor of a pioneering spirit.

Applications for the 2011 Lozoff Award will be available online in Fall Quarter 2010.

Copyright  2010 Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.