by Jessica Cline
Staff Writer
The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.
The Urban Dictionary defines the word “feminist” as, “someone who believes that both men and women should be treated equally and given equal opportunities, advocating for the rights of all genders.” Throughout the Jaguar Jungle, many staff and students represent and express their feminist ideals in multiple different ways. Either hanging up posters filled with feminism quotes, creating clubs that support women, bright and feminism toward shirts being worn, recognizing feminist icons on bulletin boards and in book displays. All of these acts have a big impact on our school, community and world. Recognizing women who are struggling for women's rights explains how unfairly women and men still get treated. The month of March is Women’s History Month.
From the Pew Research Center: In 2022, white women earned an average of 82% of what men earned. Black women earned 70% as much as White men and Hispanic women earned only 65% as much. One hundred and thirteen countries do not have laws to ensure equal pay for equal work among men and women. One hundred and 4 countries make certain jobs off-limits for women. Twenty nine countries restrict the hours women can work.
Tiffany Thomas is Bradley’s Innovative Media Specialist, past English teacher and the Diversity Club Advisor. Within the Hilliard City Schools District, she is the Diversity Facilitator. With that title, she holds a big responsibility and love of advocating for more inclusive and diverse staff members around the district. Everyday she takes a stance to value and recognize all different types of voices in the classroom. Thomas takes pride in having feminism become a big part of who she is in the school setting. She expresses, “I do feel women can do anything and we should be able to do everything. We should be able to write our own story and I’m willing to fight for those things.” Thomas is always there to help advocate for students and help them find their own voice. Senior James Goodwin describes Thomas saying “she makes an impact everyday in students' lives by simply being present, which sounds like the bare minimum, but is hard to find in teachers.” With being present and engaged with one student at a time, Hilliard Bradley High School and Hilliard City Schools are not the same without Thomas. Teachers and students are transformed by her attitude to get up everyday and hope to make a difference.
Fighting for fair and equitable curriculum choices is something Thomas takes pride in. For example, Thomas takes that extra step to advocate for themes that relate to women, people of color and people that identify as LGBTQ+ throughout the high school classrooms. Having those themes in books allows for uncomfortable and vulnerable conversations to happen. It also allows for young men to understand the true meaning of feminism. Thomas explains, “feminism isn’t just something that women can take a part of. Men can be feminists too if they believe in the equitable treatment of women and men.” Through that belief system, the showcase in front of the Bradley Media Center is decorated to highlight books that were written by Women to celebrate Women’s History Month. By having that available for students, any person in the building is able to learn and recognize these voices. Thomas always hopes to make Hilliard Bradley a more diverse environment.
The club at Hilliard Bradley, Society of Women Engineering (SWE) is a new feminism outlook that was brought to Bradley in 2022. Junior, Rutbah Kamal is the founder and “top dog” of this club that highlights young women who have interests in the field of STEM. SWE strives to be a comfortable space while learning new disciplines. Kamal explains the importance of SWE, “oftentimes, it’s easy to fall in the back and keep to yourself during specific science and math classes, but Society of Women Engineering allows every woman to comfortably participate in hands-on learning.” Kamal does it all to make sure club meetings are memorable for every single person that attends. There is always something to learn at each club meeting. They host different types of competitions, have multiple guest speakers come in, make in-depth powerpoints and share their creative message with the rest of Bradley.
The Society of Women Engineering’s Club Advisor is a Bradley chemistry teacher, Mrs. Forquer. She was absolutely thrilled and honored to be their advisor when Kamal approached her spring of 2022. In the classroom and through clubs, she wants to help her students be the best versions of themselves. She always wishes to see more young women strive in the science field. Forquer teaches her students that women are able to have the same job that men have and they are always able to respect her over it. She keeps that morality alive through SWE knowing that many of her female students could very much strive in the field of STEM. Forquer explains, “Anything I can do to help anybody, let alone females in an unrepresentative career choice, I’m all about that.” She hopes that science and engineering falls out of an unrepresentative job because of how important STEM is to everyday life. Forquer has been able to value the action of feminism while teaching her own 13 year old how to be a strong, independent woman.
Senior, Autumn Bernava is someone that expresses her feminist values in a different but just as valuable way. Bernava takes her impact to social media, photography and photojournalism. Her values and thoughts for equality and justice for everyone compliments and shapes the way she takes photos. Through the past few years, she attends protests around Columbus. A lot of her popular photos were from protests of the overturning of Roe v Wade in hope to express the right to choose.
Bernava’s work with the camera is able to capture and recognize vulnerable and important moments in history. Bernava continues to explain, “feminism can be interpreted in many different ways, but for me, taking pictures and documenting is a way to record and hopefully tell the stories of all the women and individuals who have a foothold in the moment.” Capturing those moments with her camera makes history and helps spread the word about equality and feminism. Bernava is changing her community, city and world one picture at a time.
Thomas hopes to give everyone in the classroom a voice.
Forquer and Kamal hope to create an interest in STEM for young women.
Bernava uses her camera and creates art to recognize the injustices of women.
Though supported in many ways, the staff and students of Bradley are taking great strides to advocate for one common thing they are passionate about: Feminism
Call to Action.