Feminist Club offers a place to create change and discuss equality

Adria Cooper. Staff Reporter
Originally published October 25. 2019

A new addition to the many clubs this year is the Feminist Club. They will strive to make the school more equitable and educated about women’s issues. It meets in SW100, the club’s advisor April McKenna’s room, on Mondays after school.

Junior Isabella Crone-Baron, the founder of Feminist Club, describes feminism as believing that everyone is equal. The Feminist Club looks to ensure this will happen at the school through awareness campaigns and communication.

Crone-Baron explains why Feminist Club is a valuable addition to student organizations. “Going to Ballard and hearing about sexual harassment and assault really opened my eyes to how there isn’t much awareness around those issues, and I felt like Ballard really needed that,” Crone-Baron said.

In keeping with the belief of equality, there are no hierarchal positions in Feminist Club. “President and Vice President are very patriarchal positions and a governmental structure. We want to break that down and have it be more like I can help lead but everyone works together and has the same amount of input,” Crone-Baron said.

This holds true in the role of advisor as well. McKenna is hoping the club will be exclusively student run. “I am just happy to be able to make the space available to them and to help them with logistical issues as they run into them,” she said.

The Feminist Club is already actively working to make a difference. For Homecoming, they produced posters about consent to inform students how to be safe and considerate at dances.

The club has ambitions for spreading awareness and creating an equitable environment. “One of our projects goals is to get free tampons and pads for the bathrooms. In school and around the world, not having proper menstrual hygiene products can be a huge barrier to going to school and being comfortable,” Crone-Baron said.

Feminist club memeber, junior Reese Pedersen shares about the club’s aspirations. “Some of our goals are better resources for learning about feminism and possibly planning class lessons for ABC/ABS time,” Pedersen said.

Feminist Club strives for diversity and different viewpoints, so anyone is welcome to join. “We want people from all different gender identities. Something that we talk about a lot is that sometimes feminism can be a white woman issue, but we want it to be more intersectional in that women’s rights intersects with racism. We want to explore how sexism affects different races and sexual orientations differently,” Crone-Baron said.

They also strive to ensure there are no misconceptions about what Feminist Club entails. “Feminist Club is not a man-hating club, it’s a club for people who believe in equal rights,” Pedersen said.

Crone-Baron calls for student involvement. “If you are motivated about justice and equality, come join the club and have discussions and make change.”