With sex trafficking, rape, and domestic violence happening all around the world, the Women’s Empowerment Club at Chaminade University strives to reach out to educate people and spread awareness of these horrific injustices toward women.

Club president Emma Smith, a junior and biology major, believes that empowering women is one of the first steps in the right direction to a better future. Smith believes that many people want to get involved with this movement, but often people are just unaware of what is going on in the world and in the news.

“I feel very strongly about social injustice of women in the world,” Smith said. “Everywhere there is major injustice such as the sex trafficking of women in Asia and other countries. While here in America, I think women are portrayed poorly in the media due to our reliance on pop culture, as well as stereotype of women in the workplace, which is a hot topic of social injustice in America.”

About 60 percent of Chaminade’s student population is female, which is important to the Women’s Empowerment Club because it wants to enlighten and empower as many women as they can to be the best that they can be, in school and in the work place. However, people often misunderstand what it means to empower women.

“The first misconceptions for the Women’s Empowerment Club is that we can only allow girls in the club,” Smith said. “But it’s not true, we actually allow everyone. Currently we don’t have any guys in the club, but they are more than welcome to come. The next misconception is that we are all feminist and hate guys, and think that guys are evil. That’s really not the case because most of the time, guys totally support women being equal to them.”

Tiare Saniatan, International Relations major and vice president of the Women’s Empowerment Club, believes that women in today’s society are looked down upon because of their appearance. Having a club like the Women’s Empowerment Club on campus will help women at Chaminade pursue better and higher positions in the work place and in life in general, no matter what they look like.

“I feel like women should not have to be judged by the way that they look or by their stature, but more so what they can do,” Saniatan said. “It’s amazing to see women in higher positions and taking charge. That is why this club is important to me.”

This semester the club will be arranging multiple events such as a Q-and-A women’s workshop in honor of International Women’s Day, which is on Sunday March 8. The club will also be planning an event at Sacred Hearts Academy sometime within the month of March to speak out to young high school girls about the importance of furthering their education. Smith also mentions that the club will be hosting other various community service and volunteer events.

Getting involved and uniting as a community will lead to inspire and empower women all over. Although the Women’s Empowerment Club is a small organization of only 15 members, it has become a movement that is beginning to expand and grow at Chaminade.