Although Gender Equality Today (GET) is only in its second school year, it has already had world-wide success and influence. During the 2016-17 school year, Gender Equality Club plans on participating in The Red Sand Project in February, which brings attention to people all over the world and even members of our own Kitsap County that have been involved in sex-trafficking, and ‘slipped through the cracks.’ The project entails spreading red sand in cement cracks around the school and has been approved by administration.

Weekly meetings consist of open discussions about relevant gender equality issues found in our personal interactions, media and society. Junior Anthony Hill explained that to him, GET means “staying informed on current issues.” Ultimately, GET’s goal is to create a more welcoming environment for all students and awareness for equality. “These students see the need for change and are acting upon it, that’s what I enjoy about Gender Equality Club,” said history teacher and club advisor Chris Kassler.

GET began as a means to influence and educate the population of CKHS and raise money to send girls in third-world countries to school. This club fights against sexism and gender inequality as it occurs in every corner of the world.

In its first year as a club, Gender Equality had a “Pad Party” where students gathered and manufactured cloth pads that were sent to a small village in India, where there is a negative stigma about periods. Girls do not receive any formal education about the changes happening in their bodies, and men are completely ignorant. Instead of the modern pads and tampons that are familiar to many women in first world countries, the girls in India use worn out rags.

The most recent examples of sexism are the words and actions of the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. To many, he is the epitome of sexism as it occurs to American women today. During the most recent Presidential Debate, Donald Trump justified sexual assault as common “locker room talk.” Gender Equality Today was created on the ideals that these seemingly commonplace societal justifications need to end.

All over the world, gender inequality takes many forms, encompassing members of the LGBT+ community and those who identify as genders that differ from their physical makeup. In lesser developed or developing countries, gender inequality means limited education for girls, “today nearly 58 million primary school-age children are not in school. More than half of these children are girls and 75 percent of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,”(Half The Sky). In our school, gender equality means modifying dress codes, equal enforcement of those dress codes, and educating our school community on issues that affect all genders. As 2016 graduate and club founder Chellie Labonete says, she “would love to see the club become a more active part of the community but ultimately sticking to the original goal of sending girls to school all over the world.”

Throughout the rest of the year, GET has a goal to fundraise for Coffee Oasis in Poulsbo, which opened recently and is the third center in Kitsap County. Coffee Oasis offers school help, job training and a safe haven for teens with nowhere else to go. Junior Addie Albro said the purpose of these fundraisers is “increasing awareness of the need in our community.”