On Friday morning at Grant High School, 6 female students gathered in room 123 with New York Times Reporter Claire Miller to talk about the upcoming election.
Miller, who lives in Portland just blocks from Grant and covers issues of gender, came to Grant to report on an upcoming New York Times story. Her current piece is delving into the effects this election has on young women.
She is talking with high school girls between ages 14 and17 at Grant and other Oregon high schools to hear their take on of the most controversial candidacies in history, hoping to uncover what’s at the core of young women’s empowerment.
Miller began the conversation by asking the girls what they thought about the presidential election thus far. Their responses followed a common thread: They were scared for what would happen if Donald Trump became the president.
With the media full of discussions on Trump’s “locker room talk” that objectifies and belittles women and the recent allegations of sexual abuse against him, the girls find it troubling that some Americans take him seriously. “He influences so many people, and the things that he says about women makes me really scared that other people are going to start having his views and treat women like he does,” says freshman Georgia Wolfe.
The big piece missing for Miller is whether the girls find empowerment as they watch Hillary Clinton in the spotlight. They went on to discuss Trump and Clinton’s campaigns, the lack of women in leadership positions and the importance of having a female president.
“I think that young women should always be inspired and always have role models and people in leadership positions that they can look up to,” says sophomore Jessica Griepenburg, who was one of the students picked to join in on the discussion. “You can imagine yourself in a position like that, but until you see someone actually doing it, it’s really hard to believe that you can fight for that dream and achieve it.”
Freshman Essence Taylor came away from Friday’s conversation ready to take action. “It makes me want to go out into the community more and help as many people as possible and try to teach people that the stereotypes of women are stereotypes and not all of it’s true,” she says.
Despite the negativity towards women this election, Griepenburg says she’s motivated to work harder. “It’s made me want to prove them wrong and show them that women aren’t what you are saying they are, and they can be leaders, and they can be strong,” she says.
The issues surrounding this election and the feminist movement in the country aren’t present in other classrooms at Grant, according to the girls. “It was a great conversation that I feel like more people need to have,” says sophomore Daryn Hickok, who also participated in Friday’s conversation.
Although they are unable to vote in this election, the girls feel the impacts of Trump’s campaign and look forward to making their mark in politics in the future.
“It’s sad that [Donald Trump] has such a negative impact on people and there are a lot of people who are voting for him and still think that he’s a good role model and that he should be our next president,” says Wolfe. “It makes me wish that I could vote.”
– Jessica Griepenburg is a staff member of Grant Magazine.
