From the Principal
Each year it gets a little harder to ignore International Women’s Day (IWD) if it’s not your thing. At an individual and organisational level, supporters are employing increasingly diverse, creative and visible ways to inspire meaningful conversations about inequities for women that still need addressing and, ultimately, action towards gender equity.
Pymble has engaged in IWD events and initiatives for many years, however, this year we have taken a few big, bold steps outside our classrooms and campus to encourage change where it will count for our girls in the future. Stepping out of your lane is not always a comfortable experience. We have intentionally done so to send a strong message to businesses and organisations that our girls expect an equal playing field, and we do this with the understanding that any feelings of discomfort are a sign that we are learning new things and that tides are turning. For as any changemaker knows, continuing to do the same thing that always makes you feel comfortable is unlikely to have any real impact.
It’s our time. Watch us change the world.
- In partnership with the Australian Financial Review, we have created a magazine for the business world celebrating the unique strengths and skills of incredible female role models, Pymble girls and alumni.
- We launched a campaign called Chairs for Change encouraging corporate Australia to remove gender associations from the title of the highest office in business by changing Chairman to Chair. I’m delighted this has gone global, with companies all over the world signing up.
- We released a new Speaking of Change podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify featuring the ridiculously inspirational triple athlete and Pymble ex-student Chloe Dalton, who is blazing trails for female athletes.
To follow up, in assembly next week, I will speak about the importance of “leaving a ladder” for other girls and young women. Actual ladders, intentionally painted in inclusive colours, will be placed strategically around the school to encourage girls to climb, take photos and reflect on how they can support new or other students, or perhaps the year group that will follow them. The message being that we can all do something to lead those who come behind us or to lift others up and enable them to step more confidently into their next space.
Others are also trying creative and innovative ways to disrupt norms. Three of the more interesting approaches we’ve seen this week include toy company Mattel launching a Barbie role model in the image of the black 54-year-old space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a British publisher releasing a book based on ‘rebel’ Olympic swimmer Mina Wiley (yes, of Wylie House fame!), and a number of sporting organisations backing a global movement to correct the internet to reduce gender bias on the internet by ensuring sporting statistics reflect women’s achievements, alongside that of men’s.
IWD is undeniably “our thing” at Pymble. Each IWD – in fact, oftentimes throughout the year – our students and staff put a great deal of thought into areas of life where they see inequities for girls and women and where they feel a genuine desire to change that story. Our Social Justice Festival on Wednesday was a great example of our changemakers in action, with Pymble students hosting stalls for their peers and fellow Uniting Church Australia school students to visit and explore how they can be active supporters of a wide range of human rights issues and inequities in society. Congratulations to our Chaplains, Rev Lorenzo Rodriguez Torres and Rev Punam Bent, our Head of Religion and Ethics, Edwina O’ Brien, and all students involved in creating such an engaging and action-inspiring opportunity.
Our staff are passionate about delivering educational excellence at the College and, equally importantly, setting our students up for life beyond Pymble as compassionate and influential young women. This has always been the mission of the College and it always will be.
However, setting our girls up for life sometimes necessitates working beyond the gates of the College in unconventional ways. IWD and reams of associated research reminds us that, despite having made some gains in gender equity over the years, the world of work is not as ready for our girls as we would like it to be. Women are still under-represented in burgeoning STEM industries, underpaid compared to their male counterparts and overlooked at critical points in career pathways. It’s time to use our influence, as well as the influence of outside supporters, to actively support and promote advancements in these areas for the girls and women in our community and more broadly.
#It’sOurTime #WatchUsChangeTheWorld
Dr Kate Hadwen, Principal