The Buzz

Note: All four of the Class of 2025 officers for the upcoming senior year were approached for comments pertaining to this subject, to gain a sense for their campaigning strategies, how they felt about winning, and what they plan to implement to support female representation. Three out of four officers agreed and provided interviews, but two ultimately withdrew their statements for undisclosed reasons. 

Women in leadership have been doubted for generations. Some assume there are men better suited, while others believe that women are characteristically less equipped to handle what society deems to be important. This is seen at a governmental level, in company culture, in family structures, and even at the school level. Recently, North Reading High School students’ attitudes towards women have been brought into question, and we wanted to see how different school leaders perceived this topic.

Andrea Gagnon, a teacher and curriculum leader in the math department, speaks to her background and experience with female representation. Growing up at an all-girls private school, she notes how she always felt supported and was urged to find confidence and power, with their school motto being “It’s all about the girls.” She sees differences in a co-ed structure, saying “The dynamics here are a lot different.” She emphasizes that there are positives to learning with a variety of peers, but she is saddened by diminishing confidence levels in teenage girls. She explains how when she came from Lawrence to North Reading, there were more male administrators than female. She believes that progress has been made with the addition of our assistant principal, but the most important thing is for young girls to see role models, and she hopes that she can be that for students. 

BarriAnn Alonzo, the assistant principal at the high school, highlights many of the same concerns as Gagnon regarding female leadership. When she initially started working, “there were only three female leaders” at her first school, and she has seen a similar slow growth through her twenty-seven years working in education. When asked about her experience facing criticism as a woman, she believes that much of the reactions to her presence at North Reading were largely motivated by her newness. “I think that it’s hard for somebody to come into a new place,” she says. “And especially since a lot of the teachers went to school here. So the culture and the customs are already in deep. Two men were in charge, but I replaced one of them. So I don’t know if [the criticisms] were because I’m new or if it’s because I’m a woman. I don’t have the feeling that it’s based on gender. I think it’s based on basically new ideas. And my personality, I’m a lot.” 

That being said, Alonzo does claim that there are differences in the way she is treated. At a previous school, with a primarily Spanish-speaking demographic, Alonzo recalls, “I was told by a man— I had high heels on, so it made me taller than him, and I was speaking Spanish. And he spoke Spanish, English is his second language. He told me that I shouldn’t wear my heels and that I shouldn’t be speaking Spanish. And I went, what? So I made sure I always wore my heels. And I always spoke Spanish…In the moment, I didn’t tell him what I felt. I should’ve.” That man was in a more powerful position than her, but Alonzo makes it clear, “I respect authority, but I can be assertive without being aggressive,” a word of wisdom she leaves for female students.

Alonzo and Gagnon want to create an environment to empower female students to unapologetically be themselves and fight for what they deserve. A way in which many students strive to do so is through student elections. She and many others have been excited by a change in the election process for student leaders — the executive board. For incoming freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, candidates run for positions without the categorical titles. Many administrators and students believe that this helps encourage voting based on the candidates’ ability instead of creating more competition.

Anthony Loprete, the principal at the high school, tells us, “It’s not fair to the [incoming] seniors” to change the election model when there’s only one year left, but he suggests that the other grades will acclimate to the executive board model and incorporate greater collaboration into their efforts. This year, the incoming seniors, who will maintain the position-based roles, have notably elected an all-male board. In total, there were five women who ran and four men, making it clear that in each position, a woman was outvoted. Having had some sort of female representation for the past three years, many students have expressed concerns about how their desires will be reflected in officer decisions. 

Sina Nickerson, returning Class of 2027 Officer, is wary of how a lack of representation can impact the student body. As a woman in office herself, she tells us how she faced issues that she believes were motivated by her gender identity this past year. “In certain cases, I feel like I haven’t really been given as much credit for my part in certain events as other people that were officers,” keeping in mind that the three other officers were boys, “and maybe they just hadn’t put in as much work…not really fair at all.” She does make it a point to clarify that, “a lot of the time, it’s been pretty good,” working with the other Class of 2027 officers.

When asked about the Class of 2025 election outcome, she voices the concerns of many women in the school. In her experience, many students don’t seem to vote for who they believe to be most competent and when “students run as almost like a joke…because they think it would be funny, and then they do get elected, and they don’t do as much.” Regardless of whether or not gender influences students’ voting decisions, Sina sees how there can still be unwanted consequences. “It’s a little bit intimidating to have all of those people on that board…who aren’t going to help you feel represented in the way that you should. Just generally, no matter a man’s best intentions, they’re never gonna have the experiences that we have as women…Even subconsciously…that’s gonna be implemented in the work that they do.”

We also wanted to hear from the newly elected officers. Aidan Kennedy, Class of 2025 Secretary for next year, tells us what strategies he employed to gain support from voters. “I saw what the other class officers were doing, and I thought it seemed kind of fun.” His social media posts were a big hit, but that is not all he credits for his win. “I did a lot of research into what I should do my speech about. I had a few people look at it,” a third-party, he indicates, “and they helped me change it…they were helping me edit the speech to make it more of a good speech that would be addressing the problems at hand, but also getting people to remember me.” He explains how he and his fellow officers are striving to include everyone in their decisions by creating committees of non-officers to participate in the planning and organization of major events such as prom etc.  

Ultimately, there is no way to tell what motivates our student votes. Many speculate that it is based on popularity, and others argue that it is an indication of discriminatory values. Jeffrey Lane, a teacher in the science department, believes that gender may not have solely motivated the Class of 2025 vote. In a popular vote, he says, “I think there can still be that unintended outcome of, you know, all boys, or even could be all girls.” Lane indicated that female representation is always helpful, but there are some cases in which it just doesn’t arise. More so than an executive board, Lane says that anonymous speeches may be beneficial in an election process. This means that students can see candidates clearly without any biases that come from popularity, which he believes to be a bigger issue than gender discrimination in student elections. 

Gagnon reminds us that the biggest way to bridge the gender divide, regardless of whether or not this motivated the Class of 2025 election, is to “make space at the table.” This means making sure that a collection of voices is heard and represented in the opportunities available. We live in a society where men are the majority of leaders. Everyone has their implicit biases, making it all the more important to not only “make space” for women, but to also understand and internalize what they contribute. Female students are viewed and treated differently than their male peers, and this has been reflected in many interactions in our school. How we treat others and the company that we keep, begins in high school. Keep an eye out for how you can “make space at the table” for female voices. Will the Class of 2025 officers do this? All we can do is wait and see.