Clarke Central High School Women and Gender Studies club president Erin Bothe a sophomore, presents a slide show about the Women and Gender Studies club’s plans for the 2019-20 school year at the first club meeting of the year on Aug. 26. She joined the club her freshman year and became the president, following the graduation of the organization’s previous leader. “Up until this year, we’ve only had one leader (at a time) for the club, (CCHS 2019 graduate Alice Watson), and she did all the work and organizing everything and presenting everything, so it was really her show,” Bothe said. “But this year we have four leaders, so I’m hoping we can do more, bigger things, and hopefully not (just) one person will have such a big responsibility.” Photo by Natalie Schliekelman
Clarke Central High School Women and Gender Studies club president Erin Bothe talks about her club’s values, goals and plans for the club in the 2019-20 school year.
News Staffer Natalie Schliekelman: Tell me about the Women and Gender Studies club. What does the club do?
Clarke Central High School Women and Gender Studies club president and sophomore Erin Bothe: Women and Gender Studies is an academic club that focuses on the social and cultural norms of gender and places women at the center of it. Women and Gender Studies is the closest thing to feminism without being called feminism, because it centers on the experiences of women and the overall concept of gender and focuses on things like oppression and power in gender.
NS: How do you think the club relates to the whole concept of feminism?
EB: The club very closely relates to feminism because it centers around women, women’s stories, women’s oppression, rights and women’s activism. It separates from feminism slightly, because it’s not women being oppressed as a standalone, it’s women being oppressed in the overall sense of gender and not just as an individual thing. It’s more broad than that.
NS: Can you tell me anything about how the club was started? What do you think was the reasoning behind the creation?
EB: We wanted to have, basically, a feminism study club. It was originally called the Women’s Studies Club, which is the study of women and how women play into the overall arc of society. (We) wanted to give more Clarke Central students more of an opportunity to learn about women in history in society, because a lot of our history curriculum is very male-focused. (The goal was to) diversify how we view society and the leadership positions and power positions in society.
NS: How does the Women and Gender Studies club aim to address the lack of women in the curriculum?
EB: I understand if women’s achievements have been downplayed or covered up during history because they were women, but especially in more recent years, that’s no excuse for the curriculum being so male-based. We would like to give women more of a role in history and society, because everything is still male-dominated. I want to give more of a view to students (of women in history), instead of just what they’re learning about in their social studies and history classes, because there are a lot of things (I’ve learned in the club that) I didn’t know. There’s a lot of topics that I feel like I should have learned about, but I haven’t. I don’t think there’s any one person or system to blame for that, (but it needs to change).
NS: What are your goals for this year with the club?
EB: One of my main goals for this year with the club are to host the Trunk or Treat (fundraiser) again on Halloween. We also have some other big projects we’re planning. We also want to do something else this spring, but I don’t know if we’re so far along in the process that I could officially say that it’s happening. (I do know) we want to make t-shirts this year.
NS: Tell me about the Trunk or Treat. What are your plans for this year? What did you do last year?
EB: Last year was our first trunk or treat for the club, so we set up a trunk or treat in the student parking lot. We invited everyone that we knew had a car to join us, and we also invited a lot of Clarke Central clubs and teams to have a car and give out candy to the elementary kids. All the donations and profits we got from that went to the Cottage, which I thought it was really cool. Last year, we focused on making sure that it happened and that it was good. This year, we just want to go bigger. We want to get more booth-style things along with the trunks.
NS: What was the thought process behind the trunk or treat?
EB: At the beginning of October, we knew we wanted to do it. We had started thinking about making big plans for the year, and we knew that something like a trunk or treat was a good way to get the community involved and get our club known throughout the school, while also raising profits for an organization that helps women.
NS: What does an average meeting look like?
EB: An average meeting would depend on what we’re doing. (If we have an event coming), we spend a lot of time getting ready for it, with a lot of things happening at once, but in a normal meeting, it would probably be some sort of presentation: a slide show, a documentary or video about a topic in Women and Gender Studies. Last year, we had holiday-themed meetings on how women were connected to the origins of Valentine’s Day and Easter, and those are all really cool to learn about because I had no idea about that. It really just depends, but it’s mostly very heavily academic.
NS: What are some interesting things you learned from the club?
EB: My favorite thing I learned last year was about the history of pockets, why women’s pockets in pants are so small or don’t exist. We listened to a podcast together about it, and it stuck with me a lot because I still sometimes think about it today. I think we should revisit that lesson this year. We also learned about how Valentine’s Day was originally a holiday to wish for the fertility of women in the following year. I remember the concept being really cool and fun to learn about. (Yesterday while researching for the club) I learned that, in America, women couldn’t have their own credit cards until 1974, unless they were married or had the approval of a man to open their own line of credit, which I thought was kind of insane. It showed me how recently things have been very, very different for women.
NS: Why should someone join the club?
EB: Everyone is welcome to join. Anyone who’s even remotely interested in joining should definitely join, because we need to give more of a view of how women have been treated and women and the overall sense of gender in society and throughout history. That’s something everyone needs to know because it impacts everyone, directly or indirectly. (Even boys should come) because it can give them a sense of an idea of what they couldn’t get firsthand because they have been traditionally favored for gender. It gives them a necessary viewpoint on how to treat women and how to react to their gender and gender roles in our current society.
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