Though being on Marquette’s campus for more than half a century, the Marquette Sailing Team has never had an all female executive board, until this year. 

Sydney Egar, a ’20 Marquette graduate and a past member of the sailing team, said “the executive board is a compilation of elected team members that work to organize travel, practice schedules, regattas, social events and much more.”

“The positions on the board include captain, regatta chair, treasurer, alumni and fundraising chair, merchandise chair, and the event coordinator,” Egar said in an email. 

Frannie Lambie, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and member merchandising chair on the sailing team’s executive board said there are 42 members on the team. 

“There are at least half that is female, maybe 60-65%,” Lambie said.  

While Marquette does not have an official sailing team recognized by the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association, the association has a balanced amount of male and female teams, with about 30 sailing teams for each gender. However, from a club standpoint, the situation can be different.

In a study done by Scuttlebutt sailing news, 80% of women believed there was some sort of gender gap in the sport of sailing, while 53% of men said there was one as well. 59% of women said they had experienced some sort of discrimination beacuse of their gender.

While male and female gender sailors don’t usually compete against each other, the study says there is a need to reach out to female sailors, and increase the need to be better outreach.

Egar said having an all-female executive board makes a positive impact on the team.

“The greatest thing about being on the executive board is being able to be a part of the progress of the team both on and off the water,” Egar said in an email. “Additionally, as part of the executive board you get to spend more time building friendships with your teammates and building memories that will last a lifetime.”

Amy Baudhuin, a member on the sailing team and sophomore in the College of Communication said that having an all female executive board will shed a light on the male dominance within the sport.

“Having more female voices represented on Marquette’s Team will hopefully facilitate a more inclusive environment for the future of club sailing,” Baudhuin said in an email.

Lambie said that she hopes more females at Marquette will be encouraged to join the team.

“I think this gives the sport of sailing a new perspective,” Lambie said. “Hopefully it will encourage a lot more young females to get into sailing, especially at Marquette since it is was very heavily male dominated for a while.”

Egar said how the all female board is making an impact within the team.

“The MU Sailing Team has shown so much growth in the team‘s success at regattas, sailing skills, and team bonding thanks to the team members and executive boards of the past working hard,” Egar said in an email. “Marquette Sailing Team electing an all-female Executive Board is significant because it shows just how much growth not only the Marquette Sailing Team has had over its years but sailing as a sport in general.”

Benjamin Wells contributed to this report.

This story was written by Natalija Milesunic. She can be reached at [email protected]