From opportunities to network, to the ability to stand out to universities, participating in clubs and activities provides a myriad of opportunities for students to achieve success in a future career. This means the accessibility of clubs to different genders has the ability to influence the representation of those genders in future careers. 

While the gender ratio of the population as well as the interest level of certain genders in extracurricular activities must be considered, a presence of gender inequity in certain clubs infringes on the future opportunities for set groups of students. This article aims to highlight the certain gender inequities in Middleton High School (MHS) clubs in comparison to the gender ratio of the student population.

Art Club

Art club is regarded as one of the most easy-going clubs at MHS, due to its open nature and welcoming attitude toward artists of any level. Peter Ludt, an art teacher who has been advisor of the art club for nine years, believes that the club as a whole is quite diverse. 

According to Ludt, enrollment fluctuates year to year, but as it currently stands, around two thirds of the club are women. Strangely, this large representation of women in the club is not reflective of what is seen in the art world today. 

“The art world as a whole tends to be pretty male dominated,” said Ludt. Although women outnumber men in many art schools, this representation does not follow into a higher level. According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in 18 major U.S. art museums, 87 percent of their collection was created by men. 

Ludt believes that the art club’s gender diversity will help the message of more women in the arts and will help continue to close the gender gap. He adds that it will “hopefully help the future generations.”

Model UN

Another club at MHS is the Model United Nations (Model UN), which is an organization that competitively simulates the functions of the United Nations, an activity recognized by schools all over the world. An international problem is posed to simulators who brainstorm solutions, and awards are won by students who can persuade other model nations to agree with their policy solutions. At Middleton High School, there are 49 Model UN members on the club roster: 28 are male, 21 are female, and none identify as another gender.

While enrollment in Model UN has changed throughout the years, Megan Sipiorski, the advisor of the club, says that the gender percentages have stayed roughly the same at about half and half. 

“We’ve always been considered a club that’s pretty racially diverse and ethnically diverse, I think just the nature of Model UN,” she said. 

At Model UN conferences, members are often given information on how to enter the field of international politics. Sipiorski hopes that when female prospective club members see girls in Model UN leadership positions, they will recognize the opportunity to succeed in the poorly gender-diverse field. 

“I would hope that seeing women in those positions, and just seeing a balance in those positions, makes everyone feel like [a political] career would be accessible to [them],” she said. 

Debate Club

In Middleton’s Debate club, students compete in a public forum debate style where pairs of students argue positions on monthly topics through semi-impromptu speeches. Like many other forensics organizations throughout the US, public forum debate tends to attract more male participants. Middleton Debate breaks the norm of the rest of the field’s poor gender representation.

“We have the largest debate team in the state by a lot,” Michelle Kruse, MHS Debate advisor, said. “We have maintained a higher than average representation in a very male-dominated activity. Twenty-four of our 48 active debate participants identify as female.” 

Similarly, Debate club’s leadership team and coaches have both been predominantly female for several years. Kruse hopes that this paired with Middleton Debate’s strong presence in the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) will help with “proving that all debate participants, regardless of how they identify their genders, can be successful and deserve equitable space in the arena.”

Esports Club

The Middleton Esports team competitively engages in team-based video games, including Valorant, Splatoon 3, Mario Kart and more. Demographically, men have been known to dominate the realm of video games. However, as of recently, 48 percent of US Esports competitors are women, a huge change from the measly 5 percent of recorded women gamers in 2019. 

A more proportional gender ratio remains to be seen in Middleton Esports. Marc Brousseau, the advisor of Esports, says there are about “twenty to thirty kids that show up every Monday,” with about 40 or 50 members overall. Of those 40 or 50, very few are women. 

“That club has a very very very bad ratio,” Brousseau said. However, he said “there is a notable presence of gender non-conforming, trans, et cetera students who participate in Esports.” Brousseau believes this ratio might reflect the “broader social narrative [revolving] around games,” considering males predominated the gaming scene until only recently. “Even if we do get a few girls to join the club, they’re sort of snuffed out.” 

Math Team

The MHS Math Team is a club for all students, and contains a Junior Varsity and Varsity team which practice to compete against other teams in the area. Brousseau, who is also one of the advisors for the Math Team, says that despite the ratio of male to female being unequal, it is more equal than other teams competing in Madison-area math meets. Brousseau, who has been an advisor of the club for five years, along with Stacy Wood, who has been advisor for eight, have both seen a shift in the representation of women within the club during their time advising it. This year, the ratio of men to women was around 2:1.

The rise of girls both in the club and on the leadership board is something that Brousseau believes is important for inspiring girls to join STEM focused careers. Brousseau pointed out that during his previous job as an engineer, he would “look around that room that provides all these opportunities and it was mostly men.” 

This lack of representation, he explained, was one of the reasons he wanted to become a teacher.

 “Kids not thinking about STEM as a place where girls are welcome can lead to women not choosing careers in that trajectory,” said Brousseau. 

Wood believes that their roles as advisors should help build the confidence of young women, helping reassure that “women know they belong in those fields.”