The Women’s Caucus of the Student Government Association is hosting the first Women’s Leadership Symposium, open to the campus community this Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Cape Cod Lounge.

Sïonan Barrett, speaker of the senate, had the idea to organize the conference about a year ago. The event will be focused on women’s leadership and its styles and stereotypes. Attendees will explore their own leadership styles and have tools to address the stereotypes that are put on women when they are in leadership positions.

“Students should come to the event because it will be the first Women’s Leadership Conference of hopefully a long history of opportunities to empower self-identifying women on this campus,” Barrett said.

The Women’s Leaders Symposium will address many of the stereotypes women often face. Barrett said the conference will address stereotypes, such as the phenomenon that “women in leadership roles are often regarded as aggressive, while men in the same roles are praised as assertive.”

According to Barrett, the conference will “break down the barriers and expectations placed on self-identifying women.”

She hopes the symposium “will help attendees self- reflect on what expectations society places on women in leadership roles and how we are supposed to behave or act.”

Barrett said this event would not be possible without the help of six other women in SGA: Julie Brunelle, in charge of decorations, Amy Gebo and Queenette Adegbite, who recruited session facilitators, Jen Raichel, responsible for recruiting alumni to attend the event, and Lauren Coakley and Julia Nielsen, tasked with recruiting undergraduate students.

Sorelle Mbakop can be reached at [email protected].