"We, The Women" was a forum designed by four Auburn University students, including myself, for a Women’s Leadership semester group project. Our task was to plant a "seed" that would aid in the betterment of Auburn’s campus.
As members of the Panhellenic community, Jaylin Goodwin, Shea Davis, Mackenzie Davis and myself recognized that there was an issue facing Greek life, specifically regarding the stereotypes within the sorority system. However, our group noticed that this issue stemmed from the perception of women as leaders not only within Panhellenic, but in dominant organizations on campus.
We set out to create a platform for Panhellenic women to express their concerns openly after creating a survey. The survey was open to current and recent graduate members of Panhellenic. It generated over 700 clicks of interest, but for accurate statistics, we looked at the 206 completed responses.
We were overwhelmed at the statistics, comments and vulnerability shared on our survey, as well as the open discussion forum that followed. However, our project’s main purpose shifted as we realized that younger women within the freshmen and sophomore classes had opposite responses than the upperclassmen. The statistics showed a collective pattern of unawareness among freshmen and sophomores. We concluded that gender within leadership roles on campus is an issue that most women are blinded from until they become victims.
To begin, we asked each respondent their age, year in school, sorority and major. The majority of respondents were freshmen.
Do you think Panhellenic as a whole has done a good job at preparing you to be a leader?
As a whole, the respondents believed that Panhellenic did a good job at preparing them for leadership roles. The written responses differed. “There’s too few positions and they seem to play favorites,” one respondent said.
Do you think Auburn University has prepared you to be a leader?
The majority of women answered, “Yes.” One respondent wrote, “While I believe I have leadership abilities, I think that once I was no longer in SGA, others did not see leadership in me.”
What do you think is the biggest issue facing women at Auburn University today?
The most popular answers included stereotypes, comparison to other women, sexual assault and lack of respect. It is evident that Auburn lacks diversity in leadership roles on campus, prompting one individual to write, “The under-representation of women in leadership positions on campus… Out of 34 senators, only 12 are female.”
Do you feel like you’ve been treated differently at Auburn because of your gender?
This is where the survey became increasingly interesting. As one of the last questions asked within the survey, 51 percent of women responded with, “No.” My group was taken aback by this statistic, revealing to us the oblivion among younger respondents.
“As a woman, I am expected to be quiet and go along with whatever the person in charge says,” said one woman.
However, 73 percent said that they feel like they have been treated differently based on their Greek affiliation. This answer followed with, “Certain Panhellenic sororities seem to be ‘favorites,’” and “I have been treated better because of my sorority" or "I have been given special attention.”
Many women are unaware of the disadvantages that they face due to their gender. Our survey planted the seed for awareness promotion, ultimately leading to more gender-neutral leadership positions on campus and a unified Panhellenic system.
Our full project presentation:
