By Devin Simkins/reporter
Students in a TR club have joined together to uplift the women on campus and in their community to become the best version of themselves.
Women in Power formed because many campus women wanted to meet and make connections with each other.
“We are 100 percent student-led,” WIP president Cortney Walden said. “It’s really important that we encourage our students that are women and allow them to know that life is hard sometimes and there are struggles we go through and how to get through them.”
This group was formed in 2013 and meets once a month. They have about 15 members who get together regularly.
“We work with women and girls groups in the community and encourage them to go to college,” Walden said. “Girls who have lived a life where they had no privileges and it has been hard — we want to show them we are here for them.”
They bring in female speakers who hold positions of power in the community and who have earned them by working their way up.
“I have seen firsthand the types of struggles that women face in the work industry, and I think that we are moving toward a more progressive point in history, but it’s not there yet,” Walden said. “Often, you’ve had moments where you’ve been spoken for, and I want to show them how to advocate for yourself.”
Walden noticed at one of their first meetings the concerns of the group members. A lot of them faced sensitive issues and had concerns about their rights, why certain things were happening and how to change their lives.
“With all the standards put on women by the media to be perfect in their way, you sometimes tend to forget that their beauty is not the only kind,” WIP secretary Aney Leos said. “Beauty comes in all shapes, colors and sizes.”
Members meet up and give advice to one another on a daily basis to help show each other they are not alone.
“We are all very good friends to one another,” Leos said. “We always offer advice and encouragement. When I need someone, I can always count on my fellow members.”
WIP members talk to each other about anything whenever they need to.
“They are pretty close-knit, and we even have men in the group,” Walden said. “Not all feminists are just women. Men are there to show they support and encourage you.”
The ages of the group range from 16-50 with both men and women. They help each other clear up misconceptions of women in the workforce and show women work just as hard.
“Women have God-given talents that should be valued, uplifted and respected,” TR student Jillian French said after learning about the group. “The more people that learn to enjoy recognizing people’s strengths and talents, the better off this world will be.”
Since women hold respectable positions in the community and work hard to achieve them, WIP wants them to be recognized.
“We talk about other women in history or around us who have achieved their goals and that is a reminder to how powerful we are and that against odds we can achieve what we want,” Leos said.
