Berkeley High School’s Women of Literature Club is a club that reads exclusively female authors. It was founded this year by BHS juniors Rue Bhandari, Toscana Girard Maxon, Denise Hernandez, and Armana Aradom. Hernandez said the club’s mission is to create an inclusive space where students learn about female authors and explore their writing.
“We really hope to get more people enthusiastic about reading,” Bhandari said, “I think this generation, especially people our age, don’t really read that much anymore with the rise of the internet and social media. I think it’s a really important way to become knowledgeable about certain things and that it’s an important way to connect with people. So we wanted to get people more into reading, especially female authors, because they are under-represented in a lot of classes and a lot of the things we do in school."
During the first semester, the club held author spotlights and discussed and learned about various female authors and their most famous works. This semester, the club has started its first book, “The Feminist Mystique,” a nonfiction book covering topics such as sexism, feminism, and domesticity, written by Betty Friden in 1963. They are also hoping to do a club project based on the book after they have finished reading it.
“'The Feminine Mystique' is so relevant to today and Women’s History Month,” Bhandari said, “It was a major force of the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s, so it fits into all of the activism this month tries to encourage.”
Currently, BHS’s Women’s Literature Club is working on fundraising and networking while continuing their reading of “The Feminine Mystique.” They also brought 10 of their club members to a lecture by Jamaica Kincaid (an American Antiguan author whose writing focuses on topics such as mother-daughter relationships and colonialism) on Wednesday, March 12 at Zellerbach Hall.
“Jamaica Kincaid is a super famous and influential writer, so it’s a really cool opportunity for our members to get to hear somebody like that in person,” said Liv Johnson, a BHS junior and one of the club’s treasures.
For Women’s History Month, the Women of Literature Club hosted a bake sale on Sunday, March 9, to raise money for buying copies of “The Feminine Mystique.” They are hoping to host more bake sales in the future.
“We want women of Lit to be free for everyone to join, so we provide everything that we read,” Johnson explained.
The club is hoping to network through videos in the BHS bulletin and draw in new members.
Earlier this month, the club participated in the Women’s History Club Fair, where they were able to advertise for the club and build community with other students and women-based clubs at BHS.
“We participated in the women-based club fair that happened Monday (March 10) on the campus green. This was an opportunity for people to learn more about our club and other women-based clubs around us,” Hernandez said.
The Women of Literature Club at BHS provides an inclusive community where members can connect with each other and learn about the world through various female authors.
“I would definitely say that the Women of Lit Club is really important to me,” Bhandari said, “I’ve always loved reading and it kind of upsets me seeing some of my peers dismiss literature as something that’s pretentious when it’s such a core part of daily life and a core way to connect with other people and really find yourself." Bhandari continued, "I also feel like a lot of the literature we read in school is very male-centered, you don’t see a ton of female authors. I think it’s really important to emphasize the importance of reading a lot of different kinds of books … because that’s really how you can understand the world better.”