This is why we need more women in student leadership

Last year at my alma mater, a committee was formed to investigate why there were so few women in student government leadership. When the committee presented its findings in March of this year, this was one of them:

Although some women do run for elected office, many students choose less visible jobs behind the scenes. However, some women have expressed interest in more prominent posts and were actively discouraged by other students.

The committee found that on my former campus, as on many others, I’m sure, when women consider running for “visible campus posts” that require active campaigning, they “get the message from peers that such posts are more appropriately sought by men.” They get the message that woman’s proper place is in a more behind-the-scenes role.

Or, in the case of this young man, who is running to be the social chair of the new freshman class, they get the message that a woman’s proper place is in a more between-the-sheets role.

http://youtu.be/hVeCEUgOpMM

Gee, I sure hope he can find time in his busy fucking schedule to make sure that the 18-year-olds have enough Natty Lite.

Transcript below the jump.Khan: Oh, hello there, didn’t see you. I’m Nabeer Khan, I’m a freshman at Princeton University, and I’m running for your social chair.

Headless girl: Come back.

Khan, annoyed: One sec, one sec, I’ll be back in a second. [Rolls eyes] So, if you vote for me, you’ll have excellent study breaks, incredible social events, gear that you would love to wear in your home town and everywhere. So, as you can see, I’m a little busy, but vote Nabeer Khan for social chair, and remember, beer for freshmen.

New York, NY

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia. She joined the Feministing team in 2009. Her writing about politics and popular culture has been published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, New York magazine, Reuters, The LA Times and many other outlets in the US, Australia, UK, and France. She makes regular appearances on radio and television in the US and Australia. She has an AB in Sociology from Princeton University and a PhD in Arts and Media from the University of New South Wales. Her academic work focuses on Hollywood romantic comedies; her doctoral thesis was about how the genre depicts gender, sex, and power, and grew out of a series she wrote for Feministing, the Feministing Rom Com Review. Chloe is a Senior Facilitator at The OpEd Project and a Senior Advisor to The Harry Potter Alliance. You can read more of her writing at chloesangyal.com

Chloe Angyal is a journalist and scholar of popular culture from Sydney, Australia.

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