Examining the gender disparity in this year's freshman student government elections

The presidential election for the Class of 2018 won’t be over until Friday night, but we already know the president will be male.

Out of 13 candidates running for president, none are female. Only 14 of 48 candidates for positions on the Class Board or the Undergraduate Assembly are females, according to data from the Nominations and Elections Committee’s website, even though females make up a slight majority of the freshman class.

This trend can be expanded beyond freshman elections. UA President and College senior Joyce Kim is the first female president or chair of the UA since the position became popularly elected in 2010. Additionally, Class of 2015 President Ariel Koren was the first female class president since 2004, after she was elected her freshman year.

During freshman elections, fewer females than males have chosen to run over the past five years. Since 2010, less than one-third of the candidates for the UA have been female.

Though the gender differences are less pronounced within Class Board elections, more males run for Class Board as well. Since 2010, only around 40 percent of Class Board candidates have been female.

This year’s UA has a more equal distribution of genders than previous assemblies. Eleven out of 27 members are female, and three out of five members on the Executive Board are female.

UA Secretary and College sophomore Natalie Hernandez said that she thought that while campaigning was harder for females, there was “no stigma or gender inequality” for those women who actually serve on the UA.

The Double Standard

For some freshman candidates, the thought of campaigning during the first weeks of college can be intimidating. Campaign posters and slogans can leave lasting associations with candidates’ names in the minds of the student body.

“The way freshman representatives win their seat is by getting their name out there,” Meyer said. “And the way that historically candidates have gotten their name to stick out is by doing something over the top and outrageous.”

Meyer, Hernandez, Sharma and Hoeven all agreed that campaign strategies differ between males and females.

Medha Sharma, a candidate for Executive Vice President and a Wharton freshman, believed that presidential candidates need ”a certain amount of ego,” a trait that can be perceived as less appealing in women than in men.

Three freshman women running for various Class Board positions all said that the reason they did not run for president was to optimize their chances of winning by running for positions with less competition. College sophomore Darren Tomasso, who is the sophomore class president, experienced the opposite phenomenon. He originally planned to run for executive vice president on Class Board but decided to run for president after getting advice from a friend, even though he knew it would be more competitive.

Many freshman candidates garner votes by directly approaching students, implying that a level of confidence is needed to win the election. Executive Vice President candidate and College freshman Emily Hoeven said that confident girls can be seen as overbearing, so it is harder for girls to appeal to a large audience.

“There’s a double standard. If you are as confident as a male, it’s too confident for a woman, and some people are turned off by that,” Hoeven said. “Women cannot find that middle ground of being appealing but not being sexy.”

Hernandez said she experienced this double standard firsthand during her spring UA campaign. Her campaign poster featured a photo of her in a leotard looking downward, imitating the famous Beyonce photo. The Beyonce-themed campaign echoed Hernandez’s Miley Cyrus-themed campaign from the fall semester. However, Under the Button published a post about her “touching herself” and about her breasts.

UA representative and College sophomore Marc Petrine was running at the same time and made a video of himself shirtless, but Hernandez did not feel that he was subject to the same criticisms.

“I don’t think showing off your body is degrading. I think its empowering,” she said. “That’s how I show my confidence, and everyone has their own way of doing it.”

Tomasso was elected after featuring “twerking” in his campaign video but acknowledged that he may have benefitted from different gender standards. ”People wouldn’t have felt the same way if it was a girl ... possibly because it could have been seen as objectifying themselves,” he said.

Meyer agreed that the same trait or action in a man and in a woman are often perceived differently.

The double standard continues in politics post-graduation and pools of female candidates become smaller, according to “Girls Just Wanna Not Run,” a study cited by UA Representative and College junior Jane Meyer that was conducted by the School of Public Affairs at American University in 2013.

Role Models and Identity

Women are socialized not to see themselves in positions of leadership, also according to “Girls Just Wanna Not Run.” The study explains that societal norms favor men going into politics and assuming leadership positions. Females subconsciously shy away from running because the people they see in these positions are male, linking leadership with the male gender.

Meyer experienced the phenomenon firsthand. After losing a Class Board election during the fall of her freshman year, Meyer attended several UA meetings and noticed Kim, the only female on the Executive Board at the time.

“I remember seeing [Joyce] as the only female face up there and really relating to that,” Meyer said. “I didn’t know Joyce on a personal level, but I just knew her as the woman at the front of the room.”

For Kim, the lack of females running this year is upsetting because she believes the diversity in student government should be representative of the diversity at Penn. It would be sad if women choose not to run not because of ability or skills but because of aspects of their identity, Kim said.

“Identity does form your thoughts and actions,” Kim said, adding that it is “good to have that diversity of opinion” in the room.

Meyer agreed and added that even if the issues that the UA discusses may not be gender specific, the ideal student government should represent the opinions of every demographic on campus.

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