Women gathered on South Campus April 12 for Beauty Shop Confessions, a discussion on the barriers women face while trying to achieve their goals.

“The premise of the discussion is for our female students to talk about different barriers that hinder their success and how to handle relationships and appearances and how those issues impact us as women,” said South communication outreach coordinator Ayesha Hawkins.

Hawkins considered the presentation’s title appropriate.

“If you’ve ever been to a beauty shop, that’s where all of the women catch up and gossip, and they can talk about anything and everything they want,” she said.

Many things can be potential barriers, Hawkins said.

“But the things that we think are barriers can either hinder us or are the wind that push us forward,” she said.

Several distractions can occur while in school, and the first step is realizing that and avoiding them in the best way possible, Hawkins said.

“I went to an all-women’s college specifically because I love men, honestly. I knew that relationships and men would be a distraction for me,” she said. “I, and women, typically give all that they have in a relationship, and I wanted to be able to focus on my education.”

Students often joke about procrastinating and waiting until the night before on assignments. But that, too, is a barrier, Hawkins said.

“We have to be able to motivate ourselves,” she said. “We have to keep the end result in mind to be able to keep us going. If you don’t have a goal then, you won’t have a point to continue.”

Media play a big part in becoming a barrier for women and the way society sees them.

Media put so much focus on how women should look a certain way that it becomes a barrier for themselves and the way men perceive them as well. Instead of focusing on a woman’s intelligence or character, the media revolve around clothing and appearance, Hawkins said.

“How do we go from being concerned about hair and what a woman looks like to what’s underneath that hair?” she asked.