The Power of a Conversation: Creating Change Internally Before Branching Out

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the Mountain House Women's Invitational about my experiences navigating the speech and debate space as a woman. I've wanted to do this for so long and wanted to make sure what I said started a different, yet authentic conversation. As I was thinking about what I should talk about (there were SO many aspects that I wanted to cover), I started to realize that one of the biggest obstacles in my debate career weren't the sexist ballots and rigid dress codes, but rather microaggressions within the community. It was lashback against my advocacy, comments and problematic "jokes" that bothered me the most— and I'm sure this is true for many other individuals. If we want to continue to change the norms in the community, we need to start small. It may not seem like a very significant step to take, but these interactions can often determine whether a female stays in the debate space and whether feels like she is supported, which are all prerequisite to the larger goal of attaining gender equality. Check out my full speech at https://www.hearandnow.online/womxn-speech.