Are you interested in joining a new club this year? Do you enjoy discussing politics? If yes, then the Women’s Rights Club is the perfect opportunity for you. Head officers and seniors Jilly Pearson and Madison Mitchell explain all about what being part of this club is like. 

Tell us a little bit about the Women’s Rights Club. 

It is a discussion-based club where we talk about different events and laws that affect women’s rights. This year will be focusing more on opportunities to get involved and be active in the political community. Sometimes we focus on different areas of the world. We can talk so much about gender rights in the United States, but there is a lot we don’t talk about having to do with the rest of the world. This year we are hoping to get more into education and learn about new things, also getting to meet and discuss with lots of female leaders in politics and different sectors. There are a lot of new opportunities this year with online meetings because it allows a lot more room for speakers. We’re really excited to hear from people this way. 

Are there any ways you are going to be getting involved in the upcoming election, pertaining to women’s rights?

We are going to be talking a lot about what the election does for women’s rights. We want to educate people on the different candidates and what they will do to affect gender equality. The election is our current political climate here and it seems like it is kind of impossible to avoid, but this isn’t Young Democrats Club or Young Republicans Club, so we don’t just talk about politics. We’ll try to not just focus on it since it can be a touchy subject. We don’t want this to be a club that excludes anyone who has any kind of views. 

What is the Women’s Rights Club’s purpose at EPHS?

Our purpose is to educate people about gender equality and misrepresentation of females and non-binary people. We think that gender equality is something that can be overlooked when we’re talking about the broad political sphere. You can see at any political club in the high school, they aren’t going to be talking about gender equity most of the time. Politics are the decisions that are being made that affect the laws, affect what we can and can’t do. We think it’s important to have a focus and a passion on just the women’s rights topic. We think that in politics many people have specific areas of knowledge and that area for us is women’s rights. 

What kind of students are interested in the Women’s Rights Club? 

We have people from all kinds of backgrounds who participate in our discussions. Even though there are certain issues our members don’t see the same on, we don’t want to exclude anyone. So if you’re republican, democrat, independent, etc., we don’t want to discriminate against you in any way. Really, our club is a mix. We have all sorts of people from all genders. What you would see if you were to attend a club meeting is that it’s not as big as some of the other clubs at the school because it is discussion-based. People who attend our meeting usually come back. They really love our community, the discussions, and the education. You could already know about everything we’re talking about, but it could help expand your knowledge in meetings. Especially right now, there are new things coming out every single day. People may think to themselves that it’s impossible to keep up. That’s where we come in handy: to let you know what’s going on.  

What are you looking forward to this year? 

We’re really looking forward to the new opportunities for having speakers. In the past we’ve had connections to get us a lot of great speakers, but now we’re excited to be able to get speakers from all over the world. We’re excited to be doing more charity-based fundraising for the club this year. We know a lot of clubs have t-shirts and everything, but our mission is to have members of our club design stickers and buttons that we could sell that would support charities that we can all get behind. We will be looking at a lot of anti-human trafficking charities. So, we’re really excited to bring these organizations to our attention this year. 

What are your plans for continuing this year, concerning covid 19?

We’re doing meetings via Zoom. Our first meeting is on October 16 at 7:15 am. We’ve always had meetings on Friday mornings before school. We’re going to be doing it virtually this year, which is perfect because you can just attend meetings before your first hour. You can get into our GroupMe if you check us out on Instagram @EdenPrairieWRC or get in contact with either of us. Hopefully we will have more opportunities for events as well. Women’s Rights Club is kind of a ‘come when you can club,’ which is part of what we love about it. It is super flexible for different schedules. This year it is not competing with Young Republicans Club or Young Democrats Club schedules. So, hopefully that will allow for more people who are in those clubs to join us because that has been a huge issue in the past. We use our social media and GroupMe a large amount so that even if you can’t attend meetings you can still be a part of our community.