A Free State High School club named the Young Feminists' Club meets after school Wednesday, Feb. 3, to discuss free speech and the recent incident on campus where a student displayed a Confederate flag from his truck.

After school at Free State High, more than a dozen students have pulled chairs into a circle for a discussion on feminism. In the hour that follows, the circle is widened time and again to make way for newcomers, until those gathered number more than 30.

The discussion took place Wednesday at the meeting of the school’s Young Feminists Club, which has grown three-fold in active membership in the year since its creation. The participants are mostly young women, but also include male students and a range of experiences.

“Obviously, we have a very diverse group, so it goes beyond just being women,” said Aubin Murphy, Free State junior and co-president of the club. “We talk a lot about gender and sexual orientation. We have multiple members of our group who identify as transgender, or don’t associate themselves with a gender. And the same thing with sexuality.”

The topic at this meeting is “intersectionality,” and displayed on the projector is a slide with overlapping circles, labeled categories such as race, class, sexual orientation and gender.

Maame Britwum, a Free State senior and member of the club, said the multiple perspectives coming together under the common thread of feminism enhance the discussion.

“Having people from different walks of life, different sexual orientations, different socioeconomic standings, all coming together to talk about one thing they have in common kind of brings together all these different aspects of the same topic that you wouldn’t necessarily think of from your personal side of things,” she said.

Nick, one of the club’s male members, who didn’t want to use his last name, said that it was important that men and people who identify as men were part of the group, because he thinks feminism affects everybody.

“Take the wage gap, for example; if you have women earning less money than men, then those people cannot properly contribute to the economy as well as someone earning a dollar for a dollar would be able to contribute,” he said.

Murphy said that the main intention of the club’s meetings is to share information on topics affecting members and provide a place for discussion, which helps make having those conversations outside of the club easier.

The Young Feminists club at Lawrence High School has gained similar levels of interest. Started in 2013 with five members, the LHS club also has about 30 regular participants, according to the club’s teacher-sponsor, Shannon Draper.

Some of the main topics addressed by the LHS club this school year have been consent and appropriate romantic or dating interactions, as well as catcalling and street harassment, said Kaitlyn Preut, LHS senior and president of the club. From there, the club started an education campaign, she said.

“We’ve had several meetings discussing what catcalling is, how it’s affected us, and people have said their stories,” Preut said. “And then from there we ran a schoolwide anti-catcalling campaign. So we had posters all over the school saying (things) like ‘Catcalling is not a compliment’ and encouraging people to speak up when they do see catcalling.”

Last year, the LHS club organized outreach activities for Women’s Week, which club members said they plan to do again this year.

“I think that opened the door to people who might not necessarily identify as feminists, but people who are just interested in the discussions that we were having,” said Jordyn Leon, LHS junior and club member.

For the Women’s Week this year — which is Feb. 29 through March 4 — the LHS club has picked the theme “Feminism is for Everyone.” Club members said events will include activities, displays and discussions with a variety of students, such as the school’s Graffiti Poetry club and members of the baseball team.

Upcoming topics for the Free State club include a discussion on women in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, careers as well men in feminism, including issues such a masculinity and the effect of feminist issues on men.

Kim Warren, Kansas University associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies, said there have always been many definitions of feminism and different ways people have sought equity. There is, however, a commonality, she said.

“Feminists, whether they are men or women, adults or youth, believe that gender should not be used to create social hierarchies,” she said.