In the recent years, the number of female representatives on forum has been dwindling. There has not been one female forum member in the class of ‘14, and this year, there are only two representatives who are female in all of forum. Brendan Barrow ‘17, forum member, stated, “I absolutely think that it is a problem. There are 2 girls in forum, 11 guys, and one person who is non gender conformitive, and that is a very unhealthy unbalance.” As a female candidate who ran for forum this past election, this truly is a calamity.

As Blake students, we are told hundreds of times that women can be just as successful as men, and can be treated with the same respect. However, how can this be true when there are only two females out of the 12 forum representatives? When I looked at that list of candidates, I wasn’t more upset that I wasn’t elected, I was upset at the unforeseen number of males on the list.

However, some people think that there really isn’t a problem here. Callahan Vertin ‘15 added, “I think that more guys have run for forum, it’s just the luck of the draw,” and Maddie McConkey ‘16, member of forum, stated “You vote for the person who you think will do the best job, and if that happens to be a boy, that’s just how it happens.” Although there are plenty of males who are doing great jobs on forum, I don’t understand how there would be so many more males, when females are perfectly capable of the same duties.

So, now this gets into a much larger issue at play. Why are women being pushed away from talking leadership roles on forum? Is it because of the lack of respect women are given every day, not just out in the ‘real world’, but here at Blake? I think so. Is it because the average voter in our school is more willing to vote for a male than a female, even though they are both capable? I think so. Is it because women are afraid that if they are elected they will not be able to work at the same level as men, due to societal stereotypes? I think so. Obviously, there is a major problem here at Blake, which cannot be looked over anymore, and we must do something about