While clubs are a fun way to meet new people and do things you love, gender disparities can impact people’s experiences, former math club member, senior Mira Haldar said. These disparities may occur due to reasons such as gender stereotypes and club environment, Haldar added. 

Haldar said she joined math club as a freshman and during that time, was an active member, but stopped going afterward.Haldar said that as a girl, she often felt isolated by her peers because everyone was focused on their individual progress.

“When I fell behind, I didn’t want to ask [other members] for help because I thought girls asking for help could be annoying,” Haldar said. “I did not get the vibe that anyone wanted to help me.”

Haldar said she thinks the gender in-equalities in most clubs stem from how boys and girls are raised.

“Girls are socialized to be more in a community and helping people out [while] guys are more socialized for these really individualistic competitions,” Haldar said.

However, Haldar said this environment is not the standard for all math societies. Mu Alpha Theta, the math honor society, has a group-based approach to math and feels more inclusive to girls, Haldar said.

“I think the fact that [math club and Mu Alpha Theta] are separate implies that the more competitive math should be relegated to men while the more community-oriented math is equitable,” Haldar said.

Another example of this is chess club, which lacks female members for many reasons, such as lack of outreach and the overwhelming presence of men in the field, president, senior Mark Vernik said. He said this disparity is a problem and girls are discouraged from joining because of it.

“[When] you see a male-dominated space, it creates a perpetuating cycle,” Vernik said.

Girls aren’t always the ones being marginalized in clubs, crochet club co-president senior Sarmyshta Vaddi said. Boys can be in the minority as well, especially in clubs that focus on more traditionally feminine things, Vaddi added. Like Vaddi, crochet club officer junior Robin Fischer said gender stereotypes are the problem.

“Crocheting and crafting are seen as feminine in our society,” Fischer said. “That creates barriers, especially for men to explore fun and relaxing hobbies.”

Another club with majority-female membership is Key Club, outreach coordinator sophomore Jemma Yang said, as all of the officer team and most members are girls. Yang said she attributes this to members inviting their friends, who tend to be girls.

“There were four boys in the hallway, and when they peeked in they saw a room full of girls and left,” Yang said. “ It is discouraging to them.”

Examining the problem as a whole, Yang said some of these gender inequalities could be a school problem rather than a societal one. Yang added she noticed other schools didn’t seem to have the gender inequality that HHS Key Club has.

“Other clubs in our division have males in their club,” Yang said. “In fact, the new lieutenant governor of our division is a male. I think it really depends on our school and advertising to the right population.”

Vaddi said she is trying to find ways to attract more boys to crochet club through outreach and offering a variety of crochet club activities.

“If I put up a pattern on how to make a shirt, maybe [boys] would be interested in joining, but it is all a ‘what if’,” Vaddi said. “We don’t know what the male audience is interested in so we can’t advertise for them.”

Crochet club co-president and senior Alexa Ochoa said she hopes the gender barriers in her club would lessen.

“I would like to see our audience expand so that everyone feels welcome, because they are,” Ochoa said.