Roman History was a notable exception, less than 35% girls overall, and about 28% girls in advanced levels.
Perhaps in Certamen, as in life, confidence is key. Confidence makes it easier to buzz, easier to dust yourself off after you’ve gotten a question wrong, and easier to stand up for yourself when you know you’re right. If you aren’t at least trying to answer, it’s easy to feel like you’re just not playing the game, and it’s harder to have fun.. When asked what she notices about the gender disparity as a coach, Ms. Lewis said, “I see a lot of young women hit this ‘imposter syndrome’ thing when they have to fight their male counterparts for spaces on a team, or just in general playing against them. I’ve given far too many pep talks and had to really work with my female players on that mindset”.
Former VJCL President and TJ Certamen officer Emily Yx didn’t consider her gender a factor in her decision to step back from Certamen, but the theme of confidence still came up. She noted, “When I made the jump from Intermediate to Advanced, I struggled with the sudden change in difficulty as a grammarian. In addition, my teammates had both been to castra and on the second place Intermediate team at NJCL over the previous summer, and I felt that I was far behind them in Certamen skill. At that time, I strongly considered taking a step back from Certamen because I felt I was no longer good enough to play at the elite level.”
gender was a factor in how I was treated during Certamen,” Yx said. “Of course, there were moments when I felt a little strange being the only girl on an all-boy team, but I never felt that I was being treated differently.”
For many girls, Certamen is a source of fun, a source of friends, and a place to let their competitive side out. Dr. Greenman described her own love for the game: “If anything, as a physically disabled student whose capacity for sports was very limited, I found Certamen to be the more encouraging forum.”
“I love the Certamen community. From my freshman year, some of my biggest role models have been people I’ve met through Certamen and other JCL activities, and I hope I
am following their example by forming bonds with younger Latin
written by Jennifer
Hunsinger, Thomas
Jefferson High School
for Science and Technology
Still, it would be reductive of the thousands of female Certamen players over the years, both those who have quit or those who played for their entire Latin careers, to act as if there are no female players or female players don’t have any choice in the matter. Certamen has a long way to go, but it has also come a long way from the days when Dr. Greenman played. “I never felt like my
students as well,” Yx said.
There is more that Certamen can do to be a welcoming environment, to be sure, but if we want to address the real reasons girls quit Certamen, we need to dig deeper than just the game.
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