International Women's Day
On 8 March we celebrate International Women’s Day, a global day to celebrate women, their achievements and reflect on the ongoing need to achieve gender parity in a number of ways.
In the developing nations, access to education for girls remains a challenge. UNESCO states that of the 110 million young people not in school, 60% are girls. Director General Irina Bokovo says that Since 2000, we have seen rapid progress, but we are far from the mark, only 60 percent of countries have achieved parity in primary education -- only 38 percent in secondary.
Educating girls and women is a force for empowerment, for inclusion, for human dignity, for justice. It is best way to fight poverty and build peace.
In Australia our attention turns more to the workplace and gender parity in leadership roles. Within the ASX200 21.9% of directorships are held by women and 24 boards have no female representation.
At Wesley, we are proud that 60% of the Wesley College Council members are women and that the Council President is Marianne Stillwell.
Gender parity, while directly impacting women, is an issue for men and women to resolve together. In many respects, it seems there is real progress being made, but as we see from the statistics above there is still ongoing focus and effort required.
At Wesley, our coeducational environment, depth and breadth of programs and approach to education, including the elements of the learner profile (Kindergarten – Year 12) focused on inquiry, critical and creative thinking, open-mindedness and reflection, provides our students with the opportunity to explore these challenges and prepares them to help provide positive outcomes for women into the future.
International Women’s Day is being marked with events where staff and students at each campus have the opportunity to hear from guest speakers. Dr Becky Batagol, researcher, an author and a Senior Lecturer at Monash University; Reverend Sharon Hollis, Moderator-Elect in the Victorian Tasmanian Synod and Anna Burke MP, the elected representative for Chisholm.
