On the Thelmomathesian Society’s website, you can read a list of past presidents since St. Lawrence University’s student government was founded in 1863. If you scroll about halfway through, you will see that Deborah C. Deland was elected in 1976. While any name on that list is an important one, there is something significant about Deland. She was the first female president of Thelmo. If you scroll a little farther, the next woman’s name is in the 80s.By the time you reaxh the end of the list, you will see only a few more women of Thelmo. 

In total, there are 86 names on the list. Only nine of them are women.

         Molly Thompson ’22 is the ninth female president of Thelmo. She was elected this past November, after a year as secretary. It was surprising for her to learn her number on the list. “It’s funny, I had actually miscounted the number of female presidents a bit before the election,” Thompson said. “I had thought I was going to be number 10. I was surprised, and evidently saddened that I was only nine.”

She had hoped to bring the number up to double digits.

Being a president is a lot of work; Thompson devotes most of her time outside of class to Thelmo. “I usually spend two to three hours a day responding to emails and planning,” she said. “Then I have anywhere from four to six hours of meetings a week.”

Besides her presidential duties, Thompson spends a lot of time outside with her dog, Poppy. Poppy may be just as well known around campus as Thompson.  Her picture hangs with the other executive board members on the Thelmo board in the student center.  “I love to play with Poppy on the quad or go for a walk down the Avenue of the Elms.”         

Thompson has felt alone at times as a woman in leadership, but not during her time at St. Lawrence. “I have an amazing network of fellow female leaders at SLU to learn from for support and help me through challenging situations,” she said.

Thompson has always seen three women on the Thelmo executive board, except in her particular position. “I remember asking around about the last woman president my freshman fall, only to find out she had graduated a few years prior,” Thompson said.

Number eight on the past president’s list had been in 2014.

St. Lawrence is not alone with a lack of women students in it’s student government. Female students account for more than half of college students. The St.Lawrence student body  is 55 percent female, but the number of female presidents does not seem to reflect the number of women attendingthe university. The American Student Government Association (ASGA) estimated that only 40 percent of student body presidents are female.

Of course, this number could be worse. It is nearly half of student body presidents, and it is still growing. And in other student government roles, the ASGA estimates 52 percent are women, which better reflects the demographics of the student population. This semester, about two-thirds of Thelmo is female and this year’s presidential election was actually between two women. Representation matters, and at SLU women’s representation in Thelmo seems to be getting stronger.

It was a lack of female leaders that discouraged Thompson running for senior class president in high school. “I didn’t think a girl could win, as all student body presidents in my time had been boys,” she said. Once at SLU, Thompson decided to run for Thelmo president to create the representation she had been missing. “If you don’t have a female leader to look up to, you need to set that example yourself and for future women following behind you.”

As number nine, Thompson believes her own standards for herself are higher. “Sometimes there is this voice in the back of my head that says if I do a poor job, there will not be the tenth,”Molly admitted. “Of course I know that’s not true but being only the ninth female student body president in the University’s 163-year-long history is a daunting role, one that I do not take lightly.”

It is not only within the student government that women leaders face challenges. Madeline Thibault ’19 has also devoted countless hours to various leadership roles. While at SLU, she was on the executive board of SLU Democrats.  During her first year of law school, she was elected Vice President of the American Constitution Society at Syracuse University and became the President of the St. Lawrence County Young Democrats.

 “A lot of the time, especially working in a political arena, men are taken more seriously or asked for their opinion over mine,” Thibault said. “Even while leading a protest, I still feel overshadowed and that my opinion in matters is not weighed as seriously because of my gender.”

Although it may seem daunting for women to run for a position in college, both Thompson and Thibault have been empowered through their roles. Thompson remembers feeling terrified before her first Thelmo meeting as president. “I sat down in the president’s seat in the Hannon Room with my gavel in my right hand, ready to bring the meeting to order. I took a deep breath and looked up across the room to see our junior executive board sitting on the other side of the room. Our Academic Affairs Chair Michael Miller was absent, which meant the junior executive board table that night was filled with six wonderful and brilliant young women,” she said. “Looking out and seeing our all-female junior executive board smiling back at me  gave me the confidence I needed for my first meeting.”

Last spring, Thibault led a protest on SLU’s campus with two other classmates after a Facebook post by a St. Lawrence County legislator many community members found racist. Thibault helped organize student speakers  and a march to the county courthouse. Photos from the protest reflect Thibault’s leadership. They show her in the front of the group of students marching to the courthouse, megaphone in hand.  “It was an incredible experience and something I am so grateful for,” she said.

Thibault campaign work was also empowering for her. “Working for a powerful and incredibly intelligent female congressional candidate in the 2018 midterm election, with almost a full team of women, was absolutely life changing,” she argues. “It gave me more confidence in my abilities and gave me a voice I didn’t know I had.”