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Many Gahanna Lincoln High School students are angry about posters advertising the Navy that have been showing up around the school recently.
The posters read “Women Leaders Aren’t Born They’re Forged.”
While harmless at first glance, these posters have many things wrong with them. Despite being produced by the American Navy, and being approved by the administration at Gahanna, these posters are explicitly sexist, implying that female leaders have to be made and sculpted, whereas male leaders are born that way.
By omitting the word “women,” the Navy would suggest that anyone can be made into a leader in the military. With the addition of a woman on the poster itself, the message could be considered empowering. One omitted word could have made this poster acceptable.
However, the addition of the word “women” turns the idea of leaders being born, not made, into a negative philosophy that women are not naturally leaders, they must be created.
These posters use the word “women” as a descriptor for the word “leader,” despite the fact that both “women” and “leader” are nouns. If this were to be grammatically correct, the actual phrase would be “female leaders” - which is still sexist.
It’s questionable how these even ended up on the walls in the first place. Many students have remarked on their frustration and anger towards these posters. They have been up for at least a month, and suggest that the Navy, and by extent, the Gahanna Lincoln administration, are accepting of sexism. The fact that nothing has changed is appalling.
On behalf of the students of Gahanna Lincoln - all students, not just female students - please take these posters down. No student needs a reminder of the discrimination in society blatantly hung in front of them to see everyday in the hallways.