International Women’s Day was celebrated all over the world on the 8th March and is a global day praising the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. To commemorate the occasion in school we delivered gatherings discussing not only the reasons why International Women’s Day is celebrated but also the ideology of Feminism. The aim of the gathering was to provide an honest perspective of what feminism is to further the understanding of all year groups. We talked about real life examples of both male and female feminists, showed official statistics of inequalities in the work place, and explained for those who were inspired by our gathering, how to help the cause. We received positive feedback from not only students but teachers too showing that the gathering had been successful in communicating across the movement towards equality.
To consolidate the gathering we also organised a panel event where three successful women from Derby came and spoke about their careers, challenges they’ve faced and what the future holds for them. Among the panellists were; Claire Tonks (Partner at Flint Bishop Solicitors), Bev Crighton (Senior Lecturer at Derby University) and Ndiark Mbodji (Head of Operations Engineering and Technology at Rolls Royce). The varied careers of the women gave a greater insight into the different forms of discrimination faced. One student was particularly encouraged by the talk and took a better understanding of how to deal with such issues whilst also feeling more driven to partake in a STEM career.
Overall, the events of the week were effective in encouraging conversation and action towards the subjects surrounding International Women’s Day and we hope this will lead to more discussions, events and appreciation for this movement.
Alena Sahota and Taya Evans (Year 12)
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