There are various majors among our debate members. We have accounting, pre-med, engineering and secondary education majors. As far as gender is concerned, we are mostly female. The debate team has a two to one ratio of women to men. As a mostly female group we are of course very concerned with the ideas of gender in the debate realm.
Debate can be a very sexist and exclusionary activity.
Our debate team has tried to devise methods to handle these issues. Women on the debate team do not wear dresses, skirts, or overtly feminine clothes when we are debating. We feel that it could take attention away from what we are saying and put the focus on our bodies. The need for this is evident. The following is a comment Danielle Trainer, one of the team's open debaters, received at Debate Camp this summer.