In Argentina during the late 1970s, middle-class women began marching in the streets to protest the loss of loved ones killed, tortured or "disappeared" at the hands of a brutal military regime. Their grass-roots group, "The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo," helped end the bloody dictatorship.

Photo by David Kilper

One of Lisa Baldez's favorite parts of campus is Thinker on Rock, just outside the entrance of Mallinckrodt Student Center. "People have strong feelings about the bunny, but I really like it," Baldez said. "It provides a focal point for campus and it has generated a lot of discussion."

And now, in Afghanistan, women locked away for years under an oppressive male-controlled religious regime are being urged to assume leadership roles in a new transitional government -- an invitation spurred in part by a vocal women's rights lobby in America.

Why, when faced with such situations, do some women remain quietly in the shadows, while others step forward, join hands and commit their entire being to an issue, a cause, a movement?

It is questions such as these that motivate the work of Lisa Baldez, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and the Earle H. and Suzanne S. Harbison Faculty Fellow in Arts & Sciences.

On faculty here since 1997, Baldez has focused both her research and teaching on exploring the cultural, religious and political motivations behind wars, rebellions and social movements, especially those involving women in Latin America.

Her recent research has compared women's movements in Chile, Brazil, Poland and East Germany. Her courses on gender, politics and policy explore issues ranging from "gender gaps" in American presidential campaigns to the role of women in the Cuban revolution and the Islamic Jihad.

"Women's movements have diverse interests and agendas, but my research suggests that many of them share a common impetus," Baldez said. "Women tend to organize along gender lines when they feel their views are no longer getting serious consideration within traditional male-dominated political circles. Women's movements seem to gain momentum whenever the coalitions that dominate conventional politics go through periods of upheaval and realignment."

Her recently completed book manuscript, Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2002. Based on her doctoral dissertation, the book examines two quite different women's movements in Chile: right-wing groups that worked to overthrow the Allende government and progressive groups that opposed the subsequent Pinochet regime.

Baldez conducted interviews with women activists in both groups, documenting subtle but important differences and commonalities in how each set out to mobilize support for their causes. Some women, she noted, brandished empty pots and pans and emphasized women's traditional roles. Others, breaking with established norms, took stands that were explicitly feminist in nature.

In both cases, however, women framed their actions in terms of women's status as political outsiders.

In naming Baldez as a runner-up for the American Political Science Association's dissertation of the year award, judges applauded her research for focusing solid empirical work on important issues in feminist theory. Her research, they concluded, has made a "truly important contribution to our understanding of the ways that conceptions of the 'public' and 'private' realms have shaped women's political opportunities."

In 1998, Washington University recognized Baldez's contributions by naming her as the Harbison faculty fellow, an honor that provides a talented junior faculty member in Arts & Sciences with three years of special support for teaching and research projects.

Lisa Baldez enjoys the cold treats of Ted Drewes with sons Joe, 9, and Sam, 6.

"Lisa is a first-rate scholar and an excellent teacher," said Jack Knight, Ph.D., professor and chair of political science and an occasional research associate of Baldez. "Her research on social movements in Latin America is destined to have an important impact on the field. As a teacher, Lisa has demonstrated a rare ability to engage students. Whether it is in a large lecture hall or a small seminar setting, she has created a stimulating environment for learning."

Baldez has excelled in academics, but she admits that a career in higher education never crossed her mind as a kid in Bethesda, Md. Growing up inside the Beltway, however, she was immersed in politics at an early age. Her stepfather, a trade-association lawyer, let her tag along to fund-raising events and other political gatherings.

"He took me to a lot of places and showed me how things worked," Baldez recalled. "It was nearly impossible to escape politics in my neighborhood. I went to school with the kids of members of Congress and foreign diplomats.

"One of my closest friends in high school was the son of Edmundo Vargas, a prominent international human-rights lawyer who had left Chile after the military coup. I learned a lot about Latin America from him."

During high school, she also interned with U.S. Rep. Michael D. Barnes, D.-Md., an active opponent of U.S. policy in Central America. Later, at Princeton University, she parlayed an interest in Latin American politics into a passion for Latin American literature, experiencing the revolution through tales of courage in the face of impossible oppression. In 1985, as part of a study-abroad program, she spent a summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, oddly enough, living in the home of a family that had supported the military dictatorship while conducting research on ultra-liberal human rights organizations.

Lisa Baldez University title: Assistant professor of political science and the Earle H. and Suzanne S. Harbison Faculty Fellow in Arts & Sciences Hometown: Bethesda, Md. Family: Husband, John Carey, Ph.D., associate professor of political science; children, Joe, 9, Sam, 6 Favorite campus icon: Thinker on Rock by Barry Flanagan

"My host family did not support my research, but to their credit, they never shied away from discussing sensitive issues," Baldez said. "It was an interesting time to be there because the new government had been in place for only a couple years and trials of officials from the previous military government were under way. Lots of information was coming out about people who had been disappeared by the military government."

Her senior thesis, based on interviews with the "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" was completed about the same time that Time magazine ran a cover story on the women's group and its role in the reform movement. Baldez's timing could not have been better, but she had no intention of continuing her research in graduate school.

After graduating from Princeton in 1986 with a bachelor's in political science and Latin American studies, she shifted gears and took a job with a business-consulting firm in Washington, D.C. There, while doing volunteer work in a southeast city neighborhood, she met the man who would become her husband. John Carey, a 1986 graduate of Harvard University, was working on Capitol Hill as a congressional aide assigned to the Iran/Contra hearings.

Professionally, however, Baldez still wasn't sure what she was looking for. She decided to move to New York City and found a job as a policy analyst in the city comptroller's office. Still dissatisfied, she reconsidered graduate school and began applying at top political science programs, including the University of California, San Diego, where, coincidentally, John Carey had enrolled a year before.

"UC-San Diego asked John to make some recruiting calls to graduate school applicants and he recognized my name on the list," Baldez said. "I was leaning toward the University of Texas, but he talked me into coming to San Diego. We got married two years later."

Carey earned a doctorate in political science from San Diego in 1993 and took a faculty position at the University of Rochester. Baldez earned her two political science degrees from San Diego, a master's in 1993 and a doctorate in 1997, and worked briefly as a research associate at Rochester.