"Where are the Girls in Quiz Bowl?" - Blu Mehari - Part 2

In my initial post, I wrote about the reasons for the lack of girls in quiz bowl. The logical next step is to parse out ways to resolve the issue. First off, in terms of recruitment, clubs need to put forth an effort to get more girls involved in the game. In my experience, outreach is vital to introducing potential players, especially girls, to quiz bowl. It also allows for a supportive, encouraging atmosphere within the competition. However, there are other issues present in quiz bowl. Sexism remains a significant impediment to both current and potential players. In my opinion, in order to retain female players, misogyny within the community must be actively condemned by the community at large. To be blunt, whenever something outwardly sexist occurs within the quiz bowl sphere, criticism is abundant and commonplace. However, these incidents don't generally have an impact on individual players. Those incidents consist of comments and actions that occur outside of the public eye that women in quiz bowl regularly contend with. It is how we react to these moments of everyday sexism that determines if we as a community are truly focused on fixing the gender imbalance and the misogynistic culture that exists alongside it. Ultimately, the process by which we can resolve the gender disparity in quiz bowl is to make an effort to bring girls in while combating the misogyny that keeps girls out.  The only question left is whether or not we as individuals are willing to do what it takes to rectify this problem.