Meeting every other Thursday morning in Emerald City, South’s Women in Business Club meets to bring awareness to the lack of women in the male-dominated business field. The club hopes to inspire more girls to become familiar with the business world and its possible career paths, said CTE Teacher John Blix, one of the club’s co-sponsor
Women in Business is completely student-run and co-sponsored by Blix and SRT Teacher Charlotte Tryfonopoulos. Business classes at South have always had a smaller percentage of girls enrolled compared to boys -, Blix said, but the creation of the Women in Business club has slowly started to even out these numbers.
“About 75 to 80 percent of [my] business and CTE classes [contained] all guys,” Blix said. “That has slowly and steadily changed. At this point, I have about 50 percent girls in my accounting classes.”
Aside from their usual meetings, the Women in Business club hosts the annual Women in Business Breakfast -, at which guest speakers share their paths through high school, college, and business. The breakfast is held in a round-robin style, with 13 women business professionals and a whole group panel to answer questions at the end, event planner junior Logan Walters said.
“[The breakfast] is unique because it gives the girls opportunities that they might not have gotten before to meet women role models,” Walters said. “It gives the girls an advantage that others wouldn’t have gotten because the women professionals are happy to give opportunities [for internships and LinkedIn connections] .”
Senior Keya Patel, Women in Business Vice President, believes the club has helped her understand what she wants to do in the future. She said that because the club is specifically for women, members of all ages feel more comfortable to join and dip their toes in the business field. She and the board members hope to accomplish many milestones with the club, and she said that starts with bringing more women into business.
“I hope [the club encourages] females in this school [to become] comfortable experimenting with business classes, and [their future in the] business field,” Patel said.
