Feminist Win: All-White Exec Board of Penn Republican Society Is 22% Female Compared to 19.4% of US Congress

The Penn Republican Society (PRS) may be one of countless political groups on campus, but it is certainly one of the few leading the charge in issues of diversity and representation.

PRS President Dan Johnson (C ‘19) issued a statement on the issue of gender inequality in politics earlier this week at the first PRS meeting of the semester. “We are proud to say that the PRS board is far more representative of the US population than Congress,” he said. “We have more women in leadership positions than ever, and we even have a member of the LGBTQ community on board. You’re a cool dude, Todd, and feel free to bring your boyfriend to meetings.”

When asked about racial minority representation, Johnson responded that citizenship only belongs to “people whose ancestors were born in this country. [Their] parents don’t count. So technically no minorities are citizens.” Johnson had no response when questioned about his own ancestry or about the citizenship status of Native Americans.

The PRS executive board consists of twelve members, all of whom serve on the executive board. “I’m in charge of finance,” one of them said. “I’m the treasurer, and those two are in charge of budgeting and money,” reported another board member. "We all love money, here." 

As part of its goals for 2018, the PRC stated that “fighting gender discrimination is really important.” As a result, they hope to focus on fundraising to combat issues that disproportionately affect women, such as “fighting against the opportunity to have an abortion” and “the ability to have an equal wage to that of men.”

All board members come from the bottom half of the top one percent of wealth and cited “justice for lower income students like us at Penn” for their involvement.