Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, launched ‘Off the Sidelines’ to encourage women to get more involved in their government. Photo by AP/Cliff Owen

When Meher Kairon decided to run for vice president of student affairs at the University of Chicago last spring, it wasn’t until after elections began that she realized she was the only woman running for a position on an executive slate.

Kairon and the other two members of her slate went on to win the election. As a prominent member of student government, Kairon is part a select group of young female leaders. According to a Washington Post article, less than 40 percent of student government presidents nationwide are female. This lack of female leadership in student government mirrors a lack of female involvement in national government. Only 89 of the 535 members of Congress are women, and there are only 6 serving female governors.

As vice president for student affairs, Kairon is responsible for overseeing a plethora of student organizations and developing programs to improve the quality of student life for the University of Chicago’s roughly 5,000 undergraduates.

“The reason I got involved with [student government] was because I wanted to have a voice. I wanted to engage my voice more with the community,” said Kairon, a junior studying political science.

Kairon said that she was baffled by the lack of female participation in student and national government. She said that she hopes to encourage more women to run for lower positions in the University of Chicago’s student government and eventually work their way up to leadership positions.

Increasing female participation in collegiate student government, Kairon hopes, will lead to more participation in national government

“What you do in college molds what you do later in life,” Kairon said.

Miranda Mammen, a sophomore at Stanford University and founder of the feminist blog Women’s Glib, said that female candidates running for student government positions face a more unique set of challenges than their male counterparts.

“Women my age are profoundly skilled at underestimating their own talents. Even if they’re lucky enough to feel comfortable representing themselves or representing groups of women, they’re unlikely to take ownership of a mixed-gender crowd,” Mammen wrote in an e-mail. “Unlike some guys who’ve had public office in mind for a while, if young women don’t yet know that they’ll eventually pursue a government career, they’re less likely to start racking up experience [in college].”

National women’s groups have taken notice of the lack of female representation in student government. As a part of its Elect Her initiative, the American Association of University Women hosts organizing workshops for women running for student government positions. Earlier this year, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) launched a similar effort called Off the Sidelines to encourage women to get more involved in their government.

As Kairon begins her one-year term, she hopes that her passion for student government will rub off on other women.

“I’m a girl on campus who is always talking about student government,” Kairon said. “I hope that enthusiasm shines through and reaches more women.”

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