As the air grew warmer and the days grew longer, students and teachers alike felt summer approaching. After 3 months of brutal quarantine, many Zoom denizens broke out of their virtual prisons and caught a glimpse of the glistening sunlight. It was late May of 2020, and the school year was finally coming to a close. Just like any other year, the Student Government Association (SGA) was holding elections. However, this time, the process was held entirely online. Students voted from home after watching short introductory videos from the candidates.
The results that followed called the SGA’s ideal of fair representation into question.
The SGA of the 2020-2021 school year now consists of only five females, a mere 18% of its twenty-eight members to represent half of the student body population. Moreover, SGA has only six returning members—an 89% turnover rate, excluding the Executive Board and Freshman Class Board. This discrepancy between student-body population and representation has caused disillusionment and disbelief among much of the Mountain Lakes High School student body. And yet, many members of the SGA continually defend it.
In mid-January, the SGA released an Instagram post displaying all males to celebrate the completion of the high school’s new wing. The post received a response that condemned the SGA for failing to equally represent the student body—both boys and girls—to celebrate the event. In turn, this response received many affronts from SGA members and other students in the school. The event showed just how reluctant the SGA and Mountain Lakes High School are to reckon with their overwhelming male dominance.
Below, you will find many derogatory comments that belittle the original commenter (a female). These comments only demonstrate that males in MLHS do not take the opposite sex seriously.
So far, there has been no school-wide or school-sanctioned discussion about SGA’s inequality. We, two Mountaineer editors who serve in the Junior Class Board and SGA Executive Board, want to change that.
To find answers to the many questions that SGA’s unequal representation raises and uncover stories of gender discrimination, we conducted interviews with three members of the SGA’s Executive Board, two of which are currently female high-schoolers who were past SGA members, and one of which is a female Mountain Lakes alumnus who served as Vice President of the SGA.
In this article, we split our questions and interviewees’ responses into appropriate categories to offer a comprehensive discussion of SGA representation. Personally, we were curious about many things: Are people reckoning with the inequality of representation? How has this inequality manifested itself? And what can we do to improve our lot? If you are just as curious, keep reading, and be ready to learn some informative—and surprising—insights!
Should female representation be a priority in the SGA?
“Ideally, you would want to see more female representation. But there’s nothing we can do to make fair representation law. Do we want to rig elections? Do we want to favor females more? Given the fact that representatives are who the people voted for, everyone has an equal say, and there’s no basis for gender bias—it’s just a matter of whether you’re elected or not.”
SGA Executive Board
Although the Executive Board expressed support for equal representation, they did not feel that taking active measures to enforce it was necessary or justified.
The past female SGA members had very different feelings:
“I think female representation in SGA is important because they represent the population of the school and the school is 50% female. This is obviously a perspective and a voice that needs to be heard.
Women and gender minorities should have a stake in the highest decision-making body in our school—or, quite honestly, one of the only decision-making bodies in our own school that could enact true change if they really tried.”
Past Female SGA Vice President
Under this perspective, fair female representation is of critical importance to the SGA. Thus, active measures should be taken in order to achieve it. One of our female interviewees then went on to voice their opinion on the relevance of representation in SGA to society:
“Guidance is required to ensure lessons about creating a welcoming and inviting culture. What we learn here will be repeated and this type of under-representation does not create a society that honors the ideals of equality and inclusivity.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
Our perspective — Unequal representation is considered morally unacceptable in society, but it passes relatively unharmed through Mountain Lakes High School. Only a select number of students are vocal about it, and SGA is loath to do anything about it because they believe it undermines the supposed “levelness” of the elective playing field. Perhaps this is indicative of a deeper problem with not just SGA, but the high school as a whole. This point is explored further in our next question.
Why was this year’s SGA overwhelmingly male in composition?
The Executive Board responded by citing the low number of female candidates who ran. They included statistics from years past:
“Many people in SGA this year ran unopposed. But more females could have run, right? There is simply no basis for sexism, and from our point of view, we’re just putting our best foot forward.
This year is an anomaly. You have to understand that in 2018, four girls were in the exec board. In the past three years, ten out of twelve executive board members were women. But nobody said anything about gender inequality then. Inequality hasn’t been a huge issue in past years, and the fact that this year’s SGA is majority male is not a dominant trend.”
SGA Executive Board
For the current Executive Board, the fact that female students participated in past SGA Executive Boards is reason enough to defend SGA’s current majority-male state. The Executive Board then went on by commenting on the lack of male representation in past instances in Mountain Lakes High School. This criticism directly clashes with the aforementioned SGA Instagram post of the all-male picture in the high school’s new wing:
“When Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill came to Mountain Lakes, she took pictures with only female SGA members. Males had no representation, but nobody had a problem with that. There were no negative consequences for the female members.”
SGA Executive Board
This defense points out that while only males were represented in the Instagram post, only female members were represented in pictures with our district’s House Representative. What was most notable about the Executive Board’s response was that they pointed out that this year’s majority-male outcome was an anomaly. This is what past female SGA representatives had to say about that:
“I think it’s certainly abnormal, but it is not unusual to ML culture.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
“The school’s culture allows a specific type of male to be perpetually in charge: a lot of the representation in SGA are men who play sports and of a particular ideology and standing. Men are celebrated to be more ambitious than women. I know personally people thought I was cold or arrogant because I was ambitious, but they celebrate that same quality in my male contemporaries.”
Past Female SGA Representative
Perhaps the culture present in Mountain Lakes High School is responsible for the vigorous resistance to change. Here are some examples that support this statement:
“Having served in SGA before, I know that a core group of students plan for who runs for each position in each election. Some students were silenced long before the student body voted. There was nothing wrong with the mechanics or integrity of the election; it was more so the culture that made it unfair.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
“The only way female members won was when it was a female against a female, or when there was no opposition in general. Julia Stanisci was the first female president, and she ran against another female. Meg Hatton [SGA’s female president from last year] didn’t run against anybody. However, when Ishani Mehta [a female SGA representative who last served in 2018] ran against a male candidate, she was discouraged from running by a number of people.”
Past Female SGA Representative
At this point, it still may seem counterintuitive that so many non-male members served on the SGA Executive Board in the past, according to the current Executive Board’s facts. Here is a past female representative’s explanation of why it isn’t:
“I wasn’t on SGA until sophomore/junior year (high school 2014-2018). For at least two of the years, the entire Executive Board was all male, despite an equal number of men and women running. There was no shortage of women running in my year, and there were somehow always more males on the SGA. It has never been even close to 50:50. The year I was on the exec board might have been the first year there was equal representation of the genders in the exec board.”
Past Female SGA Vice President
Our perspective — If we look back four years, we can see that many females have served in the Executive Board and in the SGA. However, if we look back further than that, we find that female participation in SGA has historically been the exception, not the rule. In addition, attempts to empower female voices in MLHS have repeatedly been shot down. When Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill came to speak at MLHS, her “Running and Winning” program was cancelled because men were not being “well-represented.” This is despite the fact that Sherrill was launching a program that specifically aimed to empower female voices. When females don’t get fair representation, nobody speaks up, but when females DO get the spotlight, men call it unfair.
Given its overwhelmingly male constitution, what demographic-related issues are there with SGA?
The Executive Board denied the presence of any problems.
“Currently, a female controls the SGA social media page, so it’s foolish to say that females have no representation in the student government.”
SGA Executive Board
What the Executive Board said is true; it is indeed a female representative who runs the SGA social media page. But is the title of “social media manager” such an empowering and prestigious role that it dispels all the other sexism at MLHS? A female runs the social media page, true. But don’t males run absolutely everything else? And furthermore, are females as equally represented as males even though they are underrepresented in numbers?
Here is further commentary on the intimidation that female SGA members face:
“I have been the recipient of rude behavior that intimidates and belittles. You need not look further from the mocking replies I received from my Instagram post. The male student body may not even recognize how their behaviors are reinforced in the SGA’s ‘Boy’s Club.'”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
According to past female representatives, this “Boy’s Club” manifests itself in ways that are destructive to female voices.
“Even though females were on the Executive Board in the past, male-oriented culture consumed SGA anyway.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
“Boys go out of their way to make their own committees like the “Procurement Committee,” and it was really based on men wanting to make decisions independent of the female exec board. They may have not seen it as something so sinister—just hanging out with friends—but I don’t think they were thinking of the ramifications of that.”
Past Female SGA Representative
The suppressing of female voices extended to the dilution of female accomplishments.
“I personally felt very disrespected and ‘shushed.’ Sometimes, I would be told by faculty and students not to voice assertive opinions, but I saw that males received different treatment. In SGA, I was told that my opinion was stupid, but males would often end up using my idea and claiming it as their own. But this problem is not unique to me: in general, although many women volunteered more and worked longer and harder than males on SGA, they weren’t celebrated.”
Past Female SGA Representative
“The argument that I heard was that women had representation in the past, and so, the thinking has become, ‘Be quiet. We already heard you.’ It’s as if after this, we don’t need more women in SGA.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
Our perspective — In no way is sexism isolated to SGA. It is all around us at MLHS, in everything we do. This unconscious belief in male superiority bolsters male voices so much in our school that the exploitation of female peers is acceptable, perhaps even encouraged. And even if the notorious “female-dominated SGA” were to return, we figure that students would receive much more attention and credit from their government. Despite facing constant, unwarranted hatred, the female-dominated Executive Board saw some of the highest levels of productivity and cooperation in SGA’s history.
How can we promote females within the SGA and the high school?
According to the Executive Board, there is nothing wrong with the status quo:
“SGA has 19 males out of 24 members, or 79%. Those numbers are similar to the makeup of the American Congress. There are no written disadvantages for women; how can you expect us to remedy this inequality? Moreover, there was no question of how to improve male representation in years past, when females dominated the executive board.”
SGA Executive Board
“We shouldn’t press for female voices—it’s not an issue we should address because representation fluctuates year to year. While we’d love to see more female representation and encourage both boys and girls to run for SGA, it’s not something that we can do anything about.”
SGA Executive Board
And because nothing is wrong with the status quo, there is no need to take action to change it. But is the status quo really flawless?
“By federal law, policies that have a disparate impact that may not seem discriminatory on the surface are considered legally discriminatory. If students and the administration are not demanding a better system, then they are complicit in upholding SGA’s toxic culture.”
Past Female SGA Vice President
The “disparate” representation in the SGA is indeed indicative of a problem with the status quo, and it may also be a sign of flawed policies or actions. Below, a female interviewee gives an example of such a flaw:
“Perhaps the culture of the school is a trickle-down effect of what we experience in our own town. The Running and Winning Program [an initiative whose purpose was to encourage female political voices] was ultimately discontinued. The League of Women Voters of Mountain Lakes was attacked because of a letter that was written by one of their members. This town’s culture influences our school’s culture.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
The culture that shot down opportunities for females in the past is the same culture that allowed the SGA to have majority-male numbers. How should we dislodge this culture? The Executive Board said that we should do nothing. Here is what past female representatives think:
“I think we, as a town and a school, need to back the Running and Winning Program, which would ultimately encourage more females to run for SGA positions. I also think we shouldn’t have a cap on the amount of people in SGA. It could not hurt to have more people in the student government—why would you want to discourage participation?”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
Part of the solution is backing initiatives that give opportunities to women. At the same time, we must be vigilant, or at least talkative, about any injustices that arise within Mountain Lakes High School.
“There should be no delay to the response the school takes in considering an act of discrimination, hatred, sexism, et cetera. The administration, counselors, and teachers should be on the lookout for instances in which representation doesn’t occur. Women shouldn’t be uncomfortable voicing their opinions or publishing critical posts.”
Josephine Hadjiloucas, Past Female SGA Representative
“I think ML really needs to stop deifying the archetype of the ambitious man who is smart and athletic, and extend it to the ambitious female as well. I personally don’t think SGA is really effective much of the time. I don’t know how efficient my time on SGA was— it was really a glorified place to set up dances and whatnot, and it didn’t seem that we were representing student voices at BOE.”
Past Female SGA Representative
Part of being vigilant about injustice and those in power means being more inclusive. Past female representatives give us insight into why and how:
“While I was in high school, I had incredible role models in the grades above me who, even if not involved in SGA, were really involved in the school and made me really comfortable to be involved myself. In the past, the SGA was really not a popularity contest. However, as I got older, I saw the culture of SGA shift towards a “frat-bro” place, and my value became less appreciated. In the past, the people who did make me comfortable had to make it clear through their words and actions that it was a safe, healthy, nurturing environment for women.
We need to make sure that every demographic and school club has representation. The SGA needs to actively reach out to people to make sure they feel included.”
Past Female SGA Vice President
Lastly, it is imperative to keep the SGA accountable for any actions (or inactions) that it carries out. One of our interviewees tells us just how important this is:
“The student body must hold the SGA accountable and expect more of SGA. If SGA took on more legitimate responsibilities in terms of student activism, student engagement, and student life, the people who do claim a stake—and that means the most enthusiastic females and males—will be most interested in the jobs that actually require work. Mental health sessions, student support services, working to increase understanding of diversity in our school district—these are all larger ideas that SGA can work on.
SGA has a lot of work to do. MLHS has a lot of work to do. The entire district and administration have a lot of work to do. Representation is more than just gender, and we should be cognizant that every voice is being heard. I genuinely hope that one day, everyone will wake up and realize the change that they need to make in order to be considered a competent organization.“
Past Female SGA Vice President
Our perspective — If SGA seeks to properly serve its student body, two things are necessary: a change of culture, and an increase in accountability. Often, we’ve heard misogynistic words float from the mouths of SGA members, yet nobody—ourselves included—spoke up, and no perpetrators received disciplinary action. Why does nobody stand up to blatant sexism? For the most part, sexism is accepted. It’s the norm. And those who speak up risk standing out or being chided. But what disappoints us the very most is that SGA, the largest school-wide organization for student discussion, is often preoccupied with derogatory remarks and hurtful ideas. We’ve also noticed that not everyone contributes to SGA initiatives. In order for SGA to succeed, it is vital that everyone do their part. But currently, SGA is being treated like a sparkly resumé buffer that bears no meaningful weight in reality.
Acknowledgements and Final Thoughts
We’re very grateful to have had the time to talk to our female interviewees and the Executive Board. Along the way of its publication, this article faced resistance from Executive Board members. That is understandable. Those who benefit the most from the status quo fight the hardest to defend it. But the worst way to solve a problem is to ignore it.
As male members of SGA, we have never experienced what it’s like to run in an election as a girl. We have never endured that dehumanizing, derisive mockery that female candidates constantly face. And furthermore, we admit that we can largely owe our victory in last year’s elections to male supremacy. We most definitely won the elections due to our gender. Of course, we both ran on noble and forward-thinking policies. But had we not been male, our victories would not have been so remarkable.
Now, let’s step back and look at this situation once more. To do so, let’s take two different approaches. First, let’s judge the elections from last year at face value. For now, the only things we care about are whether the elections were held fairly, and whether female members were allowed to run for office. Well, both of these things are true. So, if you look at it this way, the current SGA members won fair and square. Thus, there is no gender discrimination in SGA, and the problem is solved. But it’s not that simple.
Now let’s look beyond the surface. Let’s look at the intimidation these male SGA members have caused, and the sexist remarks they have made to female peers. Let’s think about the way they treat females who have authority. When you expose their ideas, their beliefs, and their morality, you will find that many of them earned their current positions simply because of their gender, and because of their desire to constantly assert their gender. Clearly, the only thing holding SGA together is the Y-chromosome.
Our silence in the SGA has made us complicit in its male-favoring construction, and it would not be right to separate ourselves from the SGA. However, we would like to bring about SGA’s reckoning with its culture of maleness and inefficacy. We are not seeking to pick fights and win petty arguments for our own sake. Rather, we are trying to make a change. It is our hope that SGA can transcend the popularity contest that it currently is and become a truly significant platform for students to create change and make major decisions in the school.
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