Women’s History Month isn’t often the first thing individuals associate with the month of March. However, Future of Female Club at Geneva High School hope to change this mindset with the amplification of underrepresented female voices.

Christine Kelly, the President of the first all-female club at Geneva High School, has multitudes of ideas for celebrating this significant month for women.

“Each meeting [every Monday] will have an event to celebrate the month,” Kelly said. “These events will include a guided conversation of a women’s panel speaking about entering the workforce as a woman, a self-defense class, and a bake sale raising money for women’s rights organizations. We are also decorating the KK hall display case and researching influential women in history.”

This club of 60 Geneva High School females, from freshmen to seniors, are wholeheartedly throwing themselves into this Women’s History Month initiative. Becca Spezzano, a dedicated senior member of FOFC, plans to spread awareness throughout the high school in her own way.

“Starting those conversations is really beneficial to bring awareness because that maybe could get other people talking about it,” Spezzano said. “Next thing you know, everyone’s celebrating.”

Mary Mondul, a psychology teacher and FOFC sponsor at GHS, is grateful for the club’s strides to acknowledge women of all lifestyles and backstories because no woman’s story is the same.

“I wouldn’t say they were under the radar,” Mondul said. “They were loud, and they were like, ‘No, I’m going to take up this space, and I’m going to push the boundaries in this way.’ I think that’s also important being a woman myself, being female, and recognizing that my voice also does matter.”

Recognizing past women’s accomplishments give young women role models to admire and look up to in everyday life. Kelly and Spezzano plan to celebrate both their female family members and women around GHS this month, while Mondul discovered her own potential in being one of those role models.

“While I may not have a lot to say today, or I may have not had a lot to say before, it doesn’t mean that I won’t,” the FOFC sponsor said. “And it doesn’t mean that what I won’t say isn’t so important or shouldn’t be listened to in the same energy and with the same strength as other voices – men or women.”

Even in 2023, there are numerous individuals complaining about an entire month dedicated to women’s history.

“The reason there’s Black History Month and Women’s History Month is because these groups have been oppressed in the past and are still being treated unequally,” Spezzano said. “There’s still a gender pay gap, there’s still gender inequality, and there’s still racism and sexism that exist in the world. So we’re still not completely there and equal.”

Kelly hopes that this project will allow others to understand how women’s equality will benefit all people, no matter the age or stage of life they are in. She also admits her own privilege as a white woman in the United States, but that doesn’t stop her from joining in the fight to assist her fellow sisters.

“I think in our current culture there is sometimes an inability to acknowledge that a particular group of people may experience life worse or different than your own,” Kelly said. “For example, I can acknowledge that women of color, trans women, etc. experience struggles in life that I can’t comprehend. And I also have to understand then that when I fight for the rights of women, they are included in that fight.”

Geneva High School’s Future of Female Club will continue to pave the way for underrepresented females, no matter the month.