Panel discusses women's experiences in eating clubs

Gender and the eating club experience cannot always be separated, a panel of alumni and current students concluded at a discussion, "A Conversation on Women and Eating Clubs," held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Alumni Day.

Panelists were Joanna Anyanwu ’15, a Women’s Center intern and member of Cap & Gown club; Julia Blount ’12 former president and trustee of Quadrangle Club; Hap Cooper ’82, president of the Tiger Inn graduate board; Joe Margolies ’15, former president of Quadrangle Club and president of the Interclub Council; Sydney Kirby ’15, vice president of Cannon Club; and Lucia Perasso ’16, president of Terrace Club. The event was moderated by Lisa Schmucki ’74, a trustee of Cap and an adviser to the ICC and Graduate Interclub Council.

Both Blount and Perasso said they initially considered running for vice president of their respective eating clubs instead of president.

“Traditionally, [Quad has] had a lot of female vice presidents,” Blount said. “I took the leap to run anyway, and I ran against seven men.”

Being a female president of an eating club does involve a certain degree of behavior modification, Perasso said.

“It became very gendered in a way I didn’t expect,” she explained. “Once I was elected, I did realize that there is an element of having to fulfill the expectation of norm male behavior that people assume that presidential people in positions of power will have.”

Kirby, however, said she had a different experience.

“I think that ‘being one of the boys’ or having to act in an agentic manner or display typical male traits isn’t necessarily something that I found at Cannon,” she said. “I think the women officers that were elected in Cannon are fairly feminine, stereotypically.”

TI had to confront issues of equality especially painfully last year, Cooper said.

“Ever had one of those mornings where you second guessed your decision to get out of bed?” asked Cooper. “[TI’s graduate board] had one of those years last year.”

Since two TI officers were fired last fall for the alleged distribution of a sexual photograph, the club accepted more women than men in the Bicker process this year, instituted a tip line through which any member can call the graduate board anonymously with an issue without having to deal with undergraduate officers and changed the officer training program to include more on sexual misconduct and alcohol abuse awareness, Cooper said.

Newly elected members do not assume office until fall of their senior year, after they have completed the training, he added.

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“It took a lot of learning to develop the tools that were necessary to make the decisions that drove the behavior that had to change. It was a tough year but a really important year,” he said. “There was a slippery slope of behavior that went from inappropriate to misogynistic to dangerous.”

TI conducted a poll of its members last November, Cooper said, and found that 70 percent of the club did not believe that a woman had much of a chance of winning a high officer position in the club. On Wednesday night, the club elected a female president, a female treasurer and a female safety officer.

Anyanwu said the results were a good starting point but not the end of the process equality at eating clubs.

“I think there should be a distinction between success on a position level and cultural change,” she said. “It’s important that these changes are being made, but it’s really key to see if these changes are being internalized.”

Both male and female officers have to be concerned with equality, Margolies said.

“This is a responsibility that also falls on male officers. To a huge extent it’s important that there’s female leadership in the clubs,” he said. “But if you have a situation where only female leaders are concerned with female issues in the clubs then you’re right back to square one.”

TI’s survey indicated that a significant number of men were concerned with women’s rights and a number of women were not, Cooper said, adding that the same trend could be found on the TI graduate board.

“One of the reasons is the women are younger, and they can remember the stuff that is going on," he said. "They liked being passed down the stairs naked, and most people survive without being too badly fondled.”

These perspectives do not cheapen the experience of women’s marginalization, Anyanwu said.

“We live in a patriarchal society, one that is upheld by both men and women," she said. "So this idea that women are more resistant is indicative of the fact that we live in a society where women have internalized aspects of their own marginalization. It’s also indicative of how women have to adapt to spaces that are sometimes hostile to them, and to exist in those spaces means going along with the status quo.”

Men and women also face double standards, Margolies said.

“There is this entire world of information that women have to be careful of, that men not only don’t have to be careful of, but don’t even know about,” he explained, recalling an incident when he was informed of a number of sexual assaults that occurred on a night of sorority initiations.

If more people, specifically more men, were aware of such information, it would mobilize people who ordinarily would think events don’t occur at this campus into action, he said.

The event was cosponsored by the Princeton Women’s Mentorship Program, the Office of Alumni Affairs, the Alumni Council’s Committee on Alumnae Initiatives, Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Educationand the Mavric Project.

The panel took place at 3 p.m. on Friday in McCosh 50.