Alana Snyder (COL ‘16) walked into a high school classroom to find the word “BITCH” written in large letters on the whiteboard. Her initial shock was echoed by every student who walked in after her. “People kind of trickled in and asked themselves, ‘Why is this on the board?’ We thought this group was going to be kind of about starting a dialogue, not about using bad words,” said Snyder.
“That whole conversation was about what does the word bitch mean when you’re using it in a casual setting or if someone’s using it aggressively; does tone really make a difference?” said Snyder. The issue then turned into a dialogue that stuck with Snyder, one that analyzed the use of the word in society.
The talk was part of a program called “The Girl Effect,” which was based out of Snyder’s high school in her hometown of Los Angeles. The initiative was inspired by a larger campaign that shared the same name. Its principal goals were dialogue on gender in society, female leadership, and empowerment.
Two years later, in the fall of 2012, Snyder entered Georgetown seeking a similar experience to the program she had found so beneficial. However, she was frustrated by a lack of accessible alternatives. “I got to Georgetown looking for something similar, and when I didn’t find that,” she continued, “I decided that it was up to me to make that happen.” This led to the creation of Georgetown University Women in Leadership (GUWIL).
GUWIL began when Snyder met Ava Arroyo (SFS, ‘16). The two discovered their mutual interest in a similar cause, and they began reaching out to friends. Within a few weeks, the organization had a dozen members, and continued to grow. As of the spring of 2016, GUWIL has a listserv of over 1,400 people.
GUWIL’s website sums up their mission statement in three points: “Careers, Connections, and Community.” The first two points are typical of a business-oriented student organization at Georgetown, but the third point, community, is a much more important and complicated goal.
Building a new home for students to confidently invest their commitment and energy has been challenging. “I think the broad scope of our club maybe makes it harder to have a membership that’s always a consistent membership,” said GUWIL President Lauren Casale (COL ‘17).
With the club’s increasing membership have come questions within the organization concerning its diversity. GUWIL Vice President Lauren Stricker (COL ’18), who began her first term this semester along with Casale, said that even though their organization is highly inclusive and does not require an application, there still have been struggles in forming a diverse community.
“Obviously that was never an intentional thing,” said Stricker. “GUWIL, like any club, will wind up finding its certain niche of people, and we’re always trying to be as reflective of the Georgetown campus itself as possible.”
GUWIL is not alone in this tendency toward forming niche communities. Leslie Hinkson, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgetown, explained that this is something inherent to student organizations on college campuses. “So some people think about this as the ‘Balkanization’ of college campuses,” said Hinkson. “We all have our little fiefdoms and we never come together and we never speak to each other.”
There is, however, another view. Hinkson explained that others think of organizations as spaces for anyone to get together and speak about shared experiences, something that they might feel like they can’t do in spaces with others who don’t have this shared experience. Organizations naturally tend toward only fragments of the student body, and this makes inclusion of the entire campus community difficult.
Stricker explained that inclusion has always been a priority for GUWIL. The group has taken steps to open their conversation to all Georgetown students by inviting others to co-sponsor events with the organization. Partnership with other organizations has been GUWIL’s primary means of reaching out to non-members who share similar interests.
In her last weeks as president, Snyder participated in an inter-organizational diversity summit hosted by Georgetown University Aspiring Minority Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs(GAMBLE). Olivia Hewitt (MSB ‘16), Co-President of GAMBLE, said that Snyder reached out to her organization to begin participating in event planning together.
Like GUWIL, GAMBLE is a fairly young organization on Georgetown’s campus, as it was founded in 2008. As a result of these discussions, GUWIL and GAMBLE now have a continuing partnership. In addition to plans to co-sponsor events in the future, the boards of both organizations continue to meet regularly.
“No, we don’t have a point person for diversity,” said Casale. “We have different people who are working on different events with co-sponsors.” She explained that the organization integrates diversifying efforts into the group’s outreach program, and she would like all board members to see this as an important matter.
In the past, GUWIL has partnered with multiple organizations on campus, including the Irish American Society, Georgetown Retail Luxury Association, Asian American Student Association, and College Democrats. In one event, the Irish American Club and GUWIL joined forces to welcome Anne Anderson, the 17th Irish Ambassador to the United States, to Georgetown for a discussion about her experience as a female leader in politics.
Going forward, Casale believes co-sponsorship is vital. She said that she values diffusion of the group’s shared messages over recruitment of new members. She sees this common ground initiative growing even larger with participation in GAMBLE’s Georgetown University Diversity Dialogue Conference 2016, which is occurring on Feb. 26, among other upcoming events that are being planned.
Internally, GUWIL has put an emphasis on gender equality. Marketing committee member Kotryna Jukneviciute (COL ‘18) is tasked with handling social media for the organization. A large emphasis in her work is outreach to the men of Georgetown’s campus, seeking more “manbassadors” as GUWIL refers to it. These “manbassadors” can be seen around campus with GUWIL laptop stickers as part of the club’s larger marketing campaign. “We’re definitely trying to engage both genders in our conversations,” said Jukneviciute. “I think that’s very important, and to make it clear that although it is Georgetown University Women in Leadership, we are not necessarily exclusive to just women.”
“The Girl Effect,” Alana Snyder’s original inspiration for GUWIL, featured an event called BYOB, Bring Your Own Boy. Snyder incorporated into her vision of the event into GUWIL. This event has been one of GUWIL’s most popular, with the most recent BYOB occurring on Feb. 2.
“In a co-ed environment, you always want everyone to be participating in the discussion, so it’s important to feel like there are relevant topics that everyone can speak to,” said Snyder. The most recent discussion centered on the Sony Leaks, specifically gender and equal pay in Hollywood. Even though BYOB occurs only once a semester, men are welcome and encouraged to attend all other GUWIL meetings and events.
Despite their proactive initiatives, two problems have plagued GUWIL since its recent creation: name recognition and public image. First, the group has struggled with making a name for themselves on Georgetown’s campus. Second, the club has received public scrutiny due to misconceptions of its work.
“Especially in the club’s founding days, when it was a baby, people didn’t necessarily understand what we were aiming at with our programming,” said Snyder. “We’ve been criticized for anything and everything to be honest… things range across the spectrum from ‘Oh it’s just another sorority’ to ‘Oh this club is just catering to the one percent.’”
The group began with Snyder and Arroyo reaching out to those closest to them on campus. Their message was clear: this is a club for women who want to excel in business. Beginning with a small, close-knit group and then reaching out into the Georgetown community created some natural difficulties related to exclusivity. Even today, new members expressed concern over how others may see the club at a glance. Marisa Colon (COL ’19) is a freshman who recently became a member of GUWIL. “I do think that maybe some people perceive it as a ‘girls only’ type of club, and that they’re exclusive in that regard,” she said, despite BYOB and other events.
“Our goal is just to get more people on campus aware of what GUWIL is,” said Casale. The organization is recently planning a new event called the Georgetown Women for Others Gala, set to take place on Apr. 7. The event, with a large portion of proceeds to be sent to a yet to be chosen charity, will honor female leaders on Georgetown’s campus. GUWIL intends to reach out to other student organizations on campus, including previous partners, asking for female nominees.
“We’re hoping that that [the Gala] could be our trademark event on campus. we’re trying to get women from all different parts of Georgetown,” said Casale. “It’s a philanthropic event that we’re trying to do … Our goal is to get other groups aware on campus of what GUWIL is.” Snyder originally began developing this idea last semester along with the GUWIL events chair at the time, Meg DiMartino (COL ‘16). Currently, there is an entire committee within GUWIL devoted exclusively to the Gala.
The architects of GUWIL are now seniors, preparing to leave Georgetown. A new generation now sits at the reins of the organization’s board, bringing with it a new set of ideas and directions. The group knows it has questions to answer. As it moves into this second phase of existence, GUWIL hopes to do just that. In the process, it aims to cement itself as a leading force of female empowerment on Georgetown’s campus in years to come.
