Women’s Empowerment & Paying It Forward to the Next Generation: Jin In

Expertise, diversity, philanthropy, and fellowship are woven throughout the Boston University Women’s Guild, Women of Color Circle, and the greater BU community. Tapping into the University’s professional, academic, and philanthropic network, BUWG proudly welcomes a variety of presenters — all of whom share their experiences within their specified professions. “3 Questions” offers a behind-the-scenes look at our accomplished presenters — BU women leading the charge.

Women’s Empowerment & Paying It Forward to the Next Generation

3 Questions with Jin In, BU Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion

At the heart of all professional achievements lies a journey of empowerment. And for many, these experiences call for unwavering determination, courage, compassion, and resilience. Jin In, Boston University’s newly appointed assistant vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, embodies empowerment and is committed to paying it forward.

When discussing her life’s work, In quickly identifies the moment her path to empowerment began. Born in South Korea, In’s father unexpectedly died when she was just seven months old. At the time, South Korea was one of the world’s poorest countries without laws to protect and value females. Although her father’s family was one of the nation’s wealthiest, she and her mother were plunged into poverty without a male connection.

“The day my father died is the day my empowerment journey began. Without a societal designation, I was liberated to discover who I truly am – my authentic power, inner power.”

In search of a better life, In’s mother immigrated them to the United States.  “Here, I met my childhood mentor who taught me — through community service and social justice action — that I, an eight-year-old immigrant from a poor country, raised by a widow, can change the world,” In says.

This untethered commitment to service and social justice created In’s professional pathway of greater good. In the wake of the 9/11 crisis, she was called to Washington D.C. to serve as Girls and Young Women’s Health Advisor for the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health – the first federal agency dedicated to gender equality. In this role, In worked with NIH, CDC, and other Executive Branch agencies, as well as the White House. Her career spans decades, working with both Democratic and Republican administrations, Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and UN Agencies. In’s community service footprint can also be tied to global and grassroots organizations in 145 countries, including For Girls GLocal Leadership (4GGL), a non-profit organization founded by In. With 4GGL, she collected the first-ever global data on young women’s empowerment with the mission to drive equality and social change.

The BU Women’s Guild proudly welcomed Jin In as keynote speaker at the 17th Annual Lunch & Awards Presentation on September 14, 2022. The event also recognized nearly 30 Boston University graduate students; all of whom received BUWG scholarship support for the 2022-23 academic year.

“The BU Women’s Guild is bringing up the next generation of leaders,” In says. “Collectively, we are giving them the baton and saying, ‘Now you go forward and do exactly the same — be the force multiplier.’”

BU Women’s Guild talked with BU’s accomplished Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion. Here, she provides some background about women’s empowerment, offers strategies to build our own “empowerment muscle,” and unveils three shocking truths about women’s empowerment.

Q1: How do you define women’s empowerment?

Jin In (she/her): As ubiquitously used as it is today, ‘women’s empowerment”’ is a relatively new concept. It is not yet a scholarship or a discipline. In fact, the word “empowerment” does not exist in many languages.

And yet, we also know today that empowering girls and women is not just a good idea. It is a must. Without women’s empowerment, and all other marginalized or forgotten groups, societies will never develop and advance. Period.

In fact, empowered girls and women are the most powerful force changing the world. Empowering females has the most impact on economies, health, political change, peacebuilding, and national security. That is, if we want the greatest anti-war program, it must include empowering women. If we want the most impactful solution to climate change, empower women – more specifically, empower girls! You can see the pattern here: Name a crisis, and the solution is the empowerment of women and girls.

So, what is women’s empowerment? To concretize this nebulous concept, I collected data from around the world and put it in a forthcoming book. You’ll have to attend the luncheon on the 14th to find out.

Q2: How do we elevate women at BU?

We elevate women by ensuring their voices, representation, full participation, and promotion – at every level, particularly at leadership/senior levels. This is for students, faculty, and staff.

Empowerment is like a muscle: we either use it or lose it. And the more we use it, the stronger we become. Then using this analogy of ‘building muscles’ is like training for a marathon but in this case, facing life challenges, I’ve identified seven muscles of empowerment – in what I hope is a soon-to-be-published book – every one of us can build and strengthen.

Furthermore, unlike power, empowerment cannot be hoarded. In fact, it expands and grows. That is, empowered people empower people. And there is power in numbers – collective or group empowerment. Although the survey data I collected was on an individual level, what I realized is that empowerment is more powerful at the collective level. That is, if done systemically and systematically, real change happens. This is why I’m here at BU – to do systemic, collective change. Or in plain language, cultural change.

The BU Women’s Guild is empowering women and bringing up the next generation of leaders. These future leaders are not only scholarship recipients. We are giving them the baton and saying, ‘Now, go forward and do exactly the same — be the force multiplier.’ This mission is why I am honored to speak at the Women’s Guild award ceremony because the Women’s Guild is paying it forward.

Q3: What are the “three shocking truths” about women’s empowerment that you learned from the data you collected?

The first shocking truth and I’m summarizing, is that education is not synonymous with empowerment. They are related but not the same. Education is knowledge. Empowerment is muscle for action.

The second shocking truth that I learned from the global data is that young women in rich countries are not more empowered than young women in poor countries. That is, just having money and wealth doesn’t lead straight to empowerment. In fact, I believe money and prestige might hinder your empowerment muscle building.

Here is why. If you don’t have resources, you have to be creative. And this is what I saw over and over again – young women in poor countries constantly using their empowerment muscle to find a way to tear down systemic and systematic barriers. So they see challenges as an opportunity to build our own muscles – a form of strength training.

The third shocking truth – and this is the pièce de résistance – is that the key to empowerment is not external. It’s internal. This means there is no limitation to empowerment. We can empower every single girl and woman – and anyone else for that matter – right now. There is nothing that’s stopping us…except ourselves.

There’s a beautiful quote that I love sharing. The author has been cited as Nelson Mandela but it really has an unknown author:

“Our deepest fear is not our darkness but our light…but we are all meant to shine. Not just some, but every single one of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our mere presence automatically liberates others.”

That is the infectious ripple effect of empowerment. I call it the ‘can-do factor.’ That is, when you see someone who ‘can do’ something, you realize you ‘can do’ it too – that is, ‘I can apply for that job,’ or ‘I can apply for that scholarship.’ And the beautiful thing about empowerment is that there were people who were transcending it to you even before you knew it.

About the author: Maureen McCarthy is a BU Women’s Guild Communications Co-chair; Director of Communications, BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, and Adjunct Lecturer for BU College of Communication (2022).

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