Are you wondering who Mrs. Amador is? Well, so are we. Unfortunately, Mrs. Amador ceases to exist due to the lack of female representation in Mr. Amador program.

For 5 years now, Mr. Amador has been a pageant show put on by Amador Leadership in which 10 male students are chosen to raise money for George Marks Children’s hospital. The “winner”, or man chosen to become Mr. Amador is the student who raises the most money for George Marks Children’s hospital.

As long as this event has been put on, female students participating in this have been running behind the scenes. Leaving the star of the show as the male students participating. In the age of 2018 where equity on a school campus should be valued and executed, this is the last event in which only male students are allowed to showcase skills and participate on stage.

“Girls, and anyone who identifies as not male, should be able to participate. It is a great opportunity for students to fundraise for a worthy cause and work with other students on a large team to put on a huge event. I don’t see any reason why students that want to help with any and all parts of such an event should be prevented from doing so just because they don’t identify as male. I dislike the implication that female students should be happy with being able to participate on the committee only, it has a “separate but equal” vibe. I’m sure many students, male and female, would like to serve on the committee and it is a valuable part of the program. But I’m sure that there are female students that would have been fabulous representatives of Amador up on stage as well.” said Amador Physics teacher Mrs. Barnett.

Currently at Amador, 50% of the population is female and 50% is male. By eliminating the opportunity for females to participate, it relegates half of the students at school to ‘support roles’ simply because they were born female.

“I kind of feel like they should be represented more because we don’t have any programs like that where girls can be on stage and do things like improv on school campus.” Kinsey Ferrera (‘20).  

If the name “Mr. Amador” was simply changed in order to be more inclusive to the rest of the AV population, the program would be able to continuing raising money for the George Marks Hospital and also contribute to an even greater cause: gender equity.

Currently, the committee is chosen through an application process in which students can apply, teachers nominate students,  and then participants are selected. The committee is open to both men and women who are interested in participating, but the contestants must be men.

The only roles open to women or students who do not identify as male or female are the “behind the scenes” roles of choreography and music preparation.

“Not everyone wants to be “Mr. Amador”, but anyone should be able to join the competition if they want to participate. “Mr. Amador” is an outdated term.” Mahlia Jackson (‘19).

In 2018 women no longer want to be the “women who stands behind the man,” and as this is the last male only event to participate in on campus, Mr. Amador has become an antiquated term.

The purpose of the Mr. Amador program is to raise money for a good cause by bringing joy and building community to the school.

The issue that has now arisen is that the 10 students chosen to “represent” each grade now only represent half the existing population of Amador, which creates a lack of community on campus.

“I think the point of Mr. Amador is to bring students together to raise money for a very good cause, I believe the money goes to a Children’s hospice place. And I don’t see why any girls can’t participate in this. Women are behind the scenes, and I think women are tired of being behind the scenes. I think by saying “Mr. Amador” to represent our school is an antiquated term, I think another teacher, Mrs. Barnett, brought up the idea of “Top Don” to be more inclusive.” said Amador Valley Biology teacher Mrs. Da Costa.

By simply changing the name, allowing anyone to become a contestant, and keeping the focus of the program on raising money for the George Marks Children’s hospital, the program would evolve to represent Amador as a whole without excluding half of the population.

“Top Don” is simply one solution proposed to include every person on campus and still keep the same premise as the program.

Granada high school did away with their Mr. Matador competition and put together a “Granada’s Got Talent” competition to raise money, but by doing this they opened the opportunity to anyone wanting to participate.

Women are tired of being placed behind men, and by allowing a program on our campus to exclude women from participating on stage, it sends the message that it’s ok for certain traditions to mandate that women stay in supporting roles, not the primary roles.

In the United States of America, “All men are created equal,” and the courts have supported the belief that this includes women.  It’s time to reinvent the name of this show to allow equal access to all in every event and program on the Amador campus.

**Editor’s Note- this article is not a condemnation of the Mr. Amador committee or program itself. We recognize that these are hard-working students who do a great job supporting our community. The purpose of this article is to start an important conversation about gender equity in programs at Amador Valley.