College Principal

Happy International Women’s Day!

This year the UN Women’s International Day theme is Cracking the Code: Innovation for a gender equal future. This focus puts the spotlight on redefining innovation to create new social, economic and cultural codes for a gender equal future. This year’s theme draws our attention to how we use technology to leverage power and effect social change. Access to technology for all women matters. Technology has become critical for education around the world; we only need to reflect on the role it played during the pandemic in educating our students to appreciate its importance. When used well, it also empowers through raising awareness and inspiring action about issues that matter to women. 

The digital gender gap perpetuates inequality for women and girls as the UN estimates that women’s lack of access to the online world will cause $1.5 trillion loss to gross domestic product for low and middle income countries by 2025 if action isn’t taken. We also recognise that women in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine have been fighting for their rights amidst war, violence and policy changes. In Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban has halted developments in human rights with women and girls now banned from tertiary education, unable to work most jobs outside of the home or travel long distances without a male chaperone and they are instructed to cover their faces in public. 

At Santa Sabina, every day is International Women’s Day because we are constantly striving to put the needs of girls front and centre and we are the strongest advocates for ensuring our girls are empowered, inspired, motivated and educated to advance gender equality for themselves and for women globally. Our girls are well aware that they have the privilege, power and responsibility to raise awareness and take action to protect the earth and its most vulnerable people and many of them are already taking action through various roles in the community to play their part for gender equality. 

Today we also launch our second Santa Dialogues Podcast – Active Girls are Healthy Girls – Playing for Life.  The need to engage girls in a more active lifestyle has never been more urgent; there are worrying mental health issues, teen girls are reportedly less happy, more anxious and increasingly dissatisfied with their appearance. To discuss this important topic, I was joined by past pupil, Morgan Baxter, Santa Sabina alumna 2011 and elite athlete who represented Australia in the Women’s Polo Team. Morgan is a physiotherapist and business owner of Physiolocal Mortlake.  She is passionate about Women’s Health and believes movement is medicine. We were also joined by our Sports Captain, Lily Carr, and Year 12 student Frances Doyle as well as Year 5 student Valentina Dal Pra, all passionate about sport and the role it plays in their lives.  Our new Director of Sport and Activities, Mr Luiz Ramalho, also participated in our discussion to highlight the ways in which we are working to engage more students in sport to form healthy habits for life. Our podcast discusses the benefits of sport for life, the programs and underlying philosophy at Santa to engage more girls to participate in sport and activity and the important role parents play in encouraging their children to be active. Movement jump starts the brain by jump starting the body, it improves cognitive function, improves strength and reduces stress, improving mood and self esteem. Sport and being active are important for life. We hope it inspires our listeners to get moving because active girls become healthy women. 

Paulina Skerman
College Principal