A buzz of conversations began when clubs gathered to promote women’s rights on International Women’s Day by calling for a silent protest at 10 a.m.

“WLQS and WeGo Global teamed up together to raise awareness about women’s rights and the importance of supporting women’s education around the world,” Women’s Leadership Summit director Amanda Cordes said.

Students participated by wearing red and standing up silently in class at 10 a.m. while holding up the sign, provided by third-hour classes, for 1 minute.

According to Empowered, red is associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as passion.

The International Women’s Marches inspired thousands of people around the world.

“(During the Women’s Strike) we can’t just encourage girls to stay home, we want to encourage our girls to have a voice and I want to have a voice, and not take for granted the opportunities that we do have in our country for education and still be able to stand for women,” French teacher Lindsey Evans said.

Evans has helped this movement go forward by standing for what she believes in.

“I stood up for respect, dignity, and value for everyone because there’s no limit to the amount of value of respect and dignity that can go around,” Evans said.

Gender inequality has raised controversy.

“We started a lot of conversations; I had the most challenging conversation with faculty. I think there’s discomfort with the idea of having privilege, so it’s hard for people to hear that maybe they have this privilege to position as a man and not get defensive,” Evans said.

Women still struggle for gender equality, and women are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, according to International Women’s Day.

“I stood up for women’s hard work because we get less than what we deserve,” sophomore Evelyn Valerio said.

According to International Women’s Day, these protests have given women the ability to become astronauts, prime minister’s, be welcomed into universities, work and have a family.

Another right that is fought for is economic equality.

“I stood up for equal pay,” sophomore Kelly Wade said.

Cordes believes standing up for women’s education is important.

“I think that the statement of a ‘Day Without a Woman’ is super powerful, but thinking globally how it’s so difficult for women to be educated, I feel that we owe it to those women to be here and to take ownership of our education,” Cordes said.

The Women’s Strike was an opportunity for students to realize how privileged they are academically in the United States versus other countries.

“We have to let our kids at West Chicago know how lucky we are that we have the right to education,” English teacher Lauren Stewart said.

Cordes believes that the school supported International Women’s Day.

“It was unifying, the whole school did something together and got behind the issue, and we were unified,” Cordes said.

Evans hopes to have inspired women to feel empowered.

“I hope we achieved some inspiration for girls and faculty that even just by doing something small like standing up for 1 minute holding up a sign you can feel empowered,” Evans said.  

The Women’s Leadership Quarterly Summit began from a Challenge to Change project.

“(It was created by) a group of ladies that wanted to make sure that women in this school are treated equally. They saw a problem in our school and were trying to fix it through sharing knowledge and empowering women,” English teacher Kyle Etheridge said.