The Network of enlightened Women held its “Scholarship Essay Contest to Promote Intellectual Diversity” over the summer that invited undergraduate women to discuss freedom of thought and diversity of opinion in an essay that could, if selected as the winner, win the author $1,000.
The organization has since found its winner in Mallory Carr, a senior Government and Economics double major at Georgetown University who penned the essay, “Conservative Women Too Dangerous For Liberal Campuses.” There was also a second-place prize in the contest, which went to Diana Stancy of Elon University.
In her winning essay, Mallory specifically drew upon the protests from liberal student groups that prompted Condoleezza Rice and Christine Lagarde to withdraw as 2014 commencement speakers from Rutgers University and Smith College, respectively.
“I entered this essay contest because I was tired of feminists defining what it means to be a woman by only allowing their narrative to be heard,” Mallory said of the NeW contest. “They are able to promote their angry hyperbolic message that sets women back in part because no one else is allowed in on the conversation.”
She added that these feminists “suppress dissenting opinion” and, as a result, conservative women are “left marginalized.”
Of her own college campus, Mallory, who is an active member of the College Republicans chapter at Georgetown, said that there “absolutely” exists a lack of intellectual diversity.
“The only dialogues that occur tend to be within the liberal movement rather than engaging truly different opinions,” she explained. “Students also segregate themselves — it’s not uncommon for a liberal college student to not have any conservative friends, limiting the exposure they have to hear anything that could potentially threaten their beliefs.”
She specifically referenced complaints of Georgetown students about Ann Coulter’s appearance at the university several years ago.
“Students still talk about how unacceptable the event was and that she should not have been allowed on campus. Were it simply because they disagreed with these women, this insane level of outrage would not occur,” detailed Mallory. “Instead, their extreme anger and intolerance more likely stems from the fact that conservative women are particularly dangerous and threatening to the far left’s understanding of the world.”
“Conservative women prove that women in America and other free societies are able to achieve success without relying on help from the feminists, threatening their power and influence,” she added.
In order to break the spell of the lacking intellectual diversity, the Georgetown student recommended conservative and libertarian college groups strive for “greater visibility” by both continuing to bring speakers to their universities and also engaging with their campus communities.
Mallory herself helped bring conservative political commentator S.E. Cupp to speak at Georgetown last year.
The senior also commended the Network of enlightened Women for “empower[ing] conservative women college students to make their perspectives heard and fight against the dominant liberal narratives on campuses.”
Below is an excerpt of Mallory’s essay:
