While one may panic in an unexpected situation, walking into the Cozby Library and Community Commons restroom brings an immediate sense of relief, knowing the EmpowerHer Club has your back by supplying free feminine hygiene products.
Coppell High School seniors Wendy Le, Aishi Biswal and Mihika Patki came together to form the EmpowerHer Club to do their part to help the female community.
In the 2023-24 school year, Patki and Biswal ran their own club, The Matriarchy. Upon learning out about Le’s club, EmpowerHer, the three of them decided to join forces, with art teacher David Bearden sponsoring the club.
“Both of our clubs had very similar goals, so we decided to combine them,” Biswal said.
Empowering women is the chief motivation of the club.
“I’m part of an all-girls’ robotics team where women empowerment is emphasized, and I wanted to do more outside of it,” Patki said.
Another goal is to bring awareness to period poverty worldwide and break down the stigmas around periods. Nearly half of the human population experiences periods, yet it is still considered a taboo topic. The National Library of Medicine defines period poverty as “the lack of accessibility or affordability of menstrual hygiene tools and educational material, such as sanitary products.” It is estimated that 16.9 million menstruating women in the United States live in period poverty.
To combat at a local level, EmpowerHer did a period product drive during the 2023-24 school year in collaboration with the CHS Eco Club, where they collected various menstrual products to donate to women’s shelters in the DFW area. With an excess of products from the drive, Le contacted the librarians at the Cozby Library and Community Commons in the hopes of providing period products to the patrons of the library, where librarian Emily Plagens was happy to help.
“I have a 14-year-old daughter, and at the time we had been talking about periods,” Plagens said. “It was a personal goal of mine to be much more open and inclusive, and to make things accessible and to break the stigma surrounding it. It was already something I was interested in, and finding out about the club when I did was really good timing.”
Having a teenage daughter inspired Plagens to partner with the EmpowerHer Club, drawing her to their cause and mission.
“Part of empowering young women to advocate for themselves can be as simple as pointing out some of the small assumptions that we, as a society, tend to fall back on in social situations,” Plagens said. “When forms of media portray two women being opponents in the workplace or the dating world, my daughter and I will pause the movie and talk about ways to lift other women up.”
Biswal also manages the club’s blog, The Scoop, with the intention of covering women’s rights in society, like the passage of over-the-counter birth control. The blog also exists to raise awareness on issues that currently affect women, such as breast cancer, as well as female-centered news, as with the Barbie movie and the success of a powerful female director like Greta Gerwig.
“Overall, the purpose of it is to keep women informed about current events that could impact or inspire them,” Biswal said. “It directly ties into our club’s mission of empowering women in our community.”
For Women’s History Month, EmpowerHer put up posters around the school honoring women from different backgrounds and time periods.
“I went with a friend to a meeting and just helped make the posters,” junior Sanjay Sudhan said. “The women in my life have been huge role models, and I believe that their gender shouldn’t overshadow their value and achievements.”
With the three co-founders being seniors, they hope to hand over the club to younger members with the same passion and drive for women’s rights.
“The EmpowerHer Club gave me insight that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” Bearden said. “Watching these young women build each other up and giving a voice to issues they might face and share was really eye opening for me.”
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