The Feminist Student Union: one of Solehi’s newest clubs
Looking for somewhere to share your passion for women’s rights? The Feminist Student Union is a new club at Southern Lehigh that discusses topics that are affecting women around the world and how to raise awareness about these issues.
Senior Cara Schiavone founded the club under the supervision of social studies teacher Mrs. Jennifer Wlodek. It meets after school every other Wednesday and is open to all grades and genders.
“We just want to do what we can to make the cause known in our school and do volunteer work or fundraisers for women’s charities,” Schiavone said.
The club focuses on the concept of “intersectionality,” or the study of sections between systems of discrimination, oppression, and supremacy.
“Everybody comes, there’s no debating. It is more of awareness type of club,” Ms. Wlodek, who is concerned about negative misperceptions about the club, said. “People thought we were going to be burning bras and picketing.”
The Feminist Student Union plans to expand and spread awareness about equality by possibly having a unique bake sale in the near future. This bake sale would reflect pay grades in the real-world by selling cupcakes to people throughout the school based on their gender and race. The goal is to spread awareness about unequal pay grades people receive in the real world, and make it relevant to students.
Senior Jake Stattel joined the group because he was curious and wanted to try something new.
“But underpinning this was a realization that one of the key requirements to creating a diverse and creative learning environment is having a degree of understanding between different groups of people living amongst one another,” he said. “By solving, or at least examining, some of the issues between males and females, we can make some real progress towards this goal.”
Other students joined the club with a mission in mind.
“I wanted to join the feminist student union to raise awareness surrounding women’s rights issues and eliminate the negative stigma that comes with being a feminist,” senior Natalie Jones said.
Those who are interested in joining the Feminist Student Union are welcome to attend the next group meeting on November 26th at 2:30 in room 180.
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