Alongside pollen, warmer climates and the return of bees and greenery, Women’s History Month kicks off March and the rest of the spring season. This month serves as a time to honor the achievements and contributions of women from all backgrounds, especially in spite of certain gendered challenges. For the RM community, it presents an opportunity to recognize the many female leaders who inspire and create change.
Many female students at RM take the opportunity to pursue leadership positions across the school, which offers a diverse selection of clubs, organizations and sports. “I’m one of the presidents of the writing center, I am an RMIB student ambassador and I’m also the vice president of Fair Access for Magnet, which is an MCPS organization that has a chapter at RM,” senior Audrey Oppong said.
Similarly, RM Green Team President Deepa Shanmugam and her co-president provide a great example of women in STEM fields for their club members. “We’re able to, like, kind of encourage other people at our end, to pursue careers that may have more stem like other women to pursue them,” Shanmugam said. These students act as figureheads for their clubs, but also as great examples of capable female leaders, especially in male-dominated fields like STEM.
Beyond academics, female leadership is also prominent in RM’s athletic community, where student-athletes balance both their sport and leadership responsibilities. “In terms of volleyball, I definitely worked really hard on my game constantly,” senior Corinne Howard, who is the co-captain of the varsity girls volleyball team and co-president of the Black Student Union, said. “That was something that I take a lot of pride in, and I think that was very much seen and felt by the team. When you have leaders and people on the team, really in general, who are willing to work hard and put the team over themselves, that’s something that you can feel and that you can notice, and that other teammates take after.”
However, behind the scenes, these female leaders can face many challenges as they guide others and try to be successful. “I think the biggest obstacle I faced is always making sure my voice is heard because even working with my male peers, I’ve noticed that sometimes I’ll just be saying things and they’re good ideas or whatever I’m saying is right but nearly it’s like they can’t even hear me talking and it’s just so personally frustrating because they’ll say the same thing or do exactly what I said but won’t be able to give me the credit for it,” Oppong said.
Howard has faced similar issues in the sports world. “So for volleyball, I think the greatest obstacle is honestly just trying to navigate being a teammate and being a leader. Like it’s very hard to cross, to figure out what lines you can and can’t cross, because they’re all my best friends, and you don’t want to be mean or too nice, you know what I mean. So you have to find that line of Captain and teammate and friend,” Howard said.
Although Montgomery County and RM try to promote gender equality, misogyny can still be seen on a more personal level. Certain sexist ideas can be ingrained culturally or socially. These stereotypes and ideas are still harmful, but often are overlooked and ignored.
In addition, there are many rising female leaders at RM, who despite being in their first year of high school, have already started taking on leadership opportunities. “I’m one of the founders of RM Pop for a Cause, which is an organization that sells popcorn to and they donate all proceeds to nonprofits like Monthly and we have a lot of impactful events and so we organized these fundraisers at like a bunch of school events,” freshman Shreya Shete said.
Moving on from student leadership, there are several experienced female leaders in the staff at RM, who ensure the success of the school. Some examples of these prominent staff female leaders are principal Alicia Deeny and assistant principals Robin Wheeler and Sara Baudry, who advocate for a team approach to leadership, which entails listening, supporting and encouraging input from the team. “I think the root [of being a leader] is that if you care about people and they feel that from you, they will trust you and be willing to follow your direction,” Ms. Baudry said.
“I would say absolutely number one [step of being a leader] is to listen and to be the voice always, like being a representation of the program that you are the leader of, or the organization that you’re the leader of, is always number one, because you’re the first person that people are gonna turn to in tough times or in good times,” Howard said. “You get the credit mostly, and you also get, like, all the blame. So making sure that you’re in tune with your people, like the people that you are representing, being in tune and listening to what they have to say and implementing things that they say, I think that’s like always number one.”
