Fragmented Female Bloc Needs Unity

But based on the absence of women leading student government and the amount of special-needs "women's issues" groups on campus, you'd think women were a minority.

Thirty years after UNC began admitting women under the same admission standards as men, women are mostly treated as a disempowered, fragmented group rather than the powerhouse constituency needed to win a student election.

You'd think with such a clear majority, women would be running the entire campus -- logically, a female student body president would be the norm, not the exception. "Women's issues," such as campus security and rape crisis counseling, would not need to be singled out on student election platforms because "women's issues" concern most students -- including our male peers.

You'd imagine that Student Body President-elect Jen Daum would be simply the next woman in a long line of female student body presidents, rather than only the third in 81 years of student self-governance.

Yet, instead of being treated as a cohesive and powerful majority to contend with, campus women are a divided group on a campus that sometimes scrutinizes female leaders more than their male counterparts.

We're beginning the third millennium still carrying gender baggage, as shown by the campus discussion of Daum's gender.

Reyna Walters, student body president from 1998-99, told The Daily Tar Heel that being female made her election more difficult. "All the old stereotypes are in place that you still have to overcome," Walters said.

Rather than focusing on Daum's leadership abilities, campus discussion of her election has centered on whether she unfairly used her sex appeal.

Did Daum use her "X factor," as she referred to in the DTH, to her advantage? Did female voters reward Daum for being female or for her campaign's focus on women's issues?

In fighting a long tradition of male supremacy and privilege at UNC, female students have to fight an uphill battle of encouraging other women and actively mobilizing our power.

Weighed down by self-esteem issues and subtler forms of discrimination, women are a majority that still somehow needs leadership programs and support systems such as the Carolina Women's Center and the Chancellor's Task Force on the Status of Women to help us make use of our power.

You'd think that with women having such force in number, the fledgling male contingent would be demanding a Carolina Men's Center and support groups to address their minority concerns. Despite the feminization of our culture and leadership styles, men seem to have the psychological and institutionalized grounding to adapt and continue their dominance.

As Diane Kjervik, director of the Carolina Women's Center, explained to me, the differences in male and female value systems affects the number of women in prominent leadership positions -- few women are willing to deal with the negative criticisms all leaders face or the intense scrutiny of other women, particularly without the guidance of a role model.

By the 2003-04 school year, Kjervik hopes to expand the Womentoring program for freshmen into a leadership development program for juniors and seniors, who will be mentored by female leaders in the community. They'll be building relationships of which recent alumnae could only dream.

Maybe women's issues are about more than campus security and personal safety. Maybe it's about peeling away the decades of gender stereotypes and looking deep inside our selves and becoming the leaders we are meant to be.

Emily Williamson, a graduate student who served as Walters' vice president, told the DTH that she avoided the scrutiny of being on the ballot.

How many talented women haven't run for office because of the lack of support for women leaders? How many women didn't even think of running because they did not know what they were capable of accomplishing?

Columnist Katy Nelson can be reached at knelson@email.unc.edu.