As experienced veterans of Andover politics, former School Presidents Allegra Asplundh-Smith ’04 and Kanyi Maqubela ’03 returned to campus last weekend to discuss the role of gender in Student Council at “Gender and Leadership, Then and Now,” a forum sponsored by the group Feminism is Equality. Asplundh-Smith, the most recent female School President, and Maqubela, the School President the year before Asplundh-Smith, offered students their perspective on the role of gender in Andover leadership, specifically in relation to elections and campaigns. “I want people to know that one win is not enough, and that’s something that I realized with time. I assumed that just by being successful in the election, I would be able to affect long-term changes in gender, and what that meant was that I didn’t spend as much time focusing on gender as School President,” Asplundh-Smith said. Maqubela and Asplundh-Smith shared their experiences running for presidents a decade ago. Asplundh-Smith recalled her struggling to balance seriousness and humor, while Maqubela reflected on the relative ease with which he campaigned for presidency, specifically on the “likeability factor.” “Success and likeability are negatively correlated for women; that’s a fact. So when you’re out in a position of speaking out and sharing your opinions, you find yourself trying to respond to people who said, ‘We want a funny School President, and you’re not funny.’ So I put up posters that were funny, and then people said, ‘You’re undermining the seriousness of your campaign,’” Asplundh-Smith said. Maqubela said, “[During my campaign,] I thought about the balance between being funny and smart, the balance between being serious and not serious, because those are characteristics that are relevant for a presidency, but it wasn’t tied to my gender in any way.” Asplundh-Smith and Maqubela also discussed the absence of female candidates in most Student Council elections. “I think it would help as women if we stopped asking ourselves if we’re qualified for this leadership role, and if we’re good enough for this leadership role, and instead just say, ‘I want this leadership role, and I’ll learn by doing it, and I’ll learn by going for it,’” Asplundh-Smith said. She noted, however, the that male candidates suffered a lower “social cost” when they lost. “The social cost for women seemed higher because there were less of us in the field, so that became something that you were known for, you tried and you lost,” she said. After Asplundh-Smith won the 2003 election by only 12 votes, some male students were annoyed. One male student started an online forum called, “Allegra. What do you think?” “As you can imagine, the feedback was mostly negative,” she said. “I don’t think it’s useful to ignore criticism. I think you have to let yourself feel it, but then you have to move on as quickly as possible… As long as we understand that we’re all biased, and if we can come to the table knowing that we are all biased, then we can let go of our defenses and discuss productively,” Asplundh-Smith continued. Asplundh-Smith and Maqubela also offered advice to the Feminism is Equality movement. “The goal here isn’t necessarily to make everyone feel comfortable, nor is it to make everybody feel heard, it’s to make people who don’t have a voice have the confidence to speak up. And that’s a different thing, and that’s a fight; that’s not a ballet,” Maqubela said. MJ Engel ’13 has communicated with Asplundh-Smith since the beginning of the election this year and had corresponded with her about the creation of the Feminism is Equality site and forums. Both Maqubela and Asplundh-Smith were on campus for Alumni Weekend.
