Challenge #5: Women in Debate

Debate has been a major part of my life since the beginning of my freshman year. This past weekend was one of my favorite tournaments of the year, the Glenbrooks. As a debater from the Glenbrooks, it was my job with my teammates, to run our half of the tournament. I was one of South’s Student Directors, which, for followers who debate meant that I sat at the main tab table, checked in all the ballots, and answered many, many questions about room assignments and bathrooms, and for followers who don’t debate (which I highly recommend) meant that I was the person everyone came to for help finding debates and resolving minor crisis.

In my view from main tab, I was able to clearly see the lack of female participation in policy debate, from looking at ballots with all-male names to seeing few women walk past me. Debate has long been acknowledged to be male-dominated environment, which has led to cases of rampant sexiam. Some say times are changing – we’ve had women win college nationals, and be the top speaker (best debater overall) both at that tournament and the high school national tournament, but I’d disagree. To take this weekend, for example: this was the first year that 3 female students ran the Glenbrooks, and there were only 5 women in the top 25 speakers at the tournament. Not a single one was in the top ten. And this is one of the largest tournaments of the year!

So, why do so few females participate in debate? The common argument is how women are treated by men. Often times, women get perceived as ‘bitchy’ when they try to act like their male counterparts, or make any attempt at being aggressive. Some think that judges are inherently biased against women, and give then lower speaker points, making it harder to be successful. Others just point to the gender disparity on teams, and recognize that maybe as a high school girl, spending 72 hours per weekend with boys who tend to make racist, sexist, and mean comments to you doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

While all those points are valid, I’d like to add another one: how women treat women. The few women who survive dealing with the men in debate tend to be competitive, ruthless and judgmental. I’ll be the first to admit that, in my attempt to make myself feel better about my chances of winning, I've judge female opponents. I’m rarely judging them on what I know about them as a debater – it’s usually about how high her heels are, how short her skirt is, or who I know she’s friends with/has dated. In reality, none of those things matter. Yet, it’s what debate girls tend to focus on. We’re probably quicker than the boys to call another girl bitchy because she was mean to us in cross-examination, even when we know that we do the same thing when we answer questions.

As women in debate, we walk a fine line. But we should work to cooperate more, because we all love the activity, and we'd like to see more women/girls in it. We should prevent ourselves from being a barrier to that inclusion. More on this topic to come later….

If you're interested in helping prevent sexism in debate, please sign this pledge. 

Ciao♀,
Charlie

Semifinals: 1 female debater, 3 men 0 female judges, 3 men.
Congrats to Kat Sears (far right) for winning this round (and the tournament!)