On Monday of next week, the School commences a weeklong celebration for Women’s International Day (IWD), celebrated every year around the globe on 8^th March.

Our celebration commences with Ms Susan Coles, Deputy State Director, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), providing the keynote address at our Senior School Assembly. Ms Coles is currently playing a key role in facilitating the Women’s World Cup T20 and having worked for three and a half years as Australia’s High Commissioner and Ambassador in the Indian Ocean Region, she will be speaking on traditional diplomacy and more specifically, Sports Diplomacy.

During her time as an Ambassador, Ms Coles delivered events and programs based on a shared vision of women in leadership, empowerment through political office and economic empowerment, girls’ education, women and girls in STEM, and combating violence against women.  Ms Coles, together with DFAT, supported a mentoring program for women entrepreneurs in her four countries of responsibility (Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and the Comores Islands), showcasing gender at the heart of our foreign policy.

We also look forward to welcoming Mrs Molina Swarup Asthana to our IWD Assembly. Mrs Asthana is a Commissioner for the AFL South East Commission and was on the AFL Advisory Committee for Multicultural Engagement. Also on the board of Gymnastics Victoria, Mrs Asthana has been a Cricket Australia Community Ambassador, Commonwealth Games Ambassador and Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week Ambassador. The founder of the organisation Multicultural Women in Sport which aims to empower migrant women from multicultural backgrounds through sport, Molina is also our very own community member as Mum of Diya in Year 6.

Parents and community members are invited to attend our International Women’s Day Assembly on Monday 2 March to listen to Susan Coles and Molina Asthana, two exemplary role models for our young girls. Assembly commences at 10.20am in the Senior School Hall with Years 6-12 attending.

Every year, International Women’s Day gives us cause to celebrate women’s achievements, from major milestones such as gaining the vote to recognising the incredible accomplishments of individual women.

In recent years, there is growing confidence that societal changes are steering us towards a more female-friendly world where consumer and technology trends will be redefined around a new set of priorities based on gender, career and family. According to McKinsey & Company, advances in female equality could add $12 trillion to the global economy by 2025, while Ernst & Young predicts that women will control three-quarters of the world’s discretionary spending by 2028.

Fittingly, the global theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is ‘Generation Equality’, marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a progressive roadmap for the empowerment of girls and women across the globe. UN Women will also celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2020 and, while there has been some progress, they write that “real change has been agonisingly slow”. In fact, “not a single country in the world can claim to have achieved gender equality”. UN Women sees 2020 as a pivotal opportunity to take stock of the past 25 years and “collectively tackle the unfinished business of empowering all women and girls in the years to come”.

At a School level, St Catherine’s students in Year 9 engage in study about the UN Sustainable Development Goals prior to undertaking their program in the Highlands of Fiji. Most notably, Goal No. 5 Gender Equality – aiming to achieve gender equality and empower all girls and women. The Year 9 girls always reflect positively on their time spent with the women in each village and are eager to understand the role of women in the rhythm and vitality of village life in a developing country. Through their first-hand experience in the H2H program, the girls develop an understanding that when women are empowered to play an active role in society, women and girls improve the education, health and earning power of their families and communities. Such examples include:

• A woman’s earning power increases 10-30% for every year of education she receives – which means more money to invest in her family and community.
• For every year a woman is educated, the mortality rate of her young children is reduced 5-10% – her children are better fed, better cared for, and more likely to have their medical needs met.

On a final note, excitement is also brewing as Victoria is aiming to set the world record for the biggest ever crowd at a women’s sporting match, when the MCG hosts the Women’s Final of the International Cricket Council T20 World Cup.

A sell-out crowd for the Women’s Final on International Women’s Day would make history – breaking the world record attendance for any women’s sport fixture.

The record has been long held by the 1999 Women’s Soccer World Cup Final, which saw 90,185 pack into the Rose Bowl in California to watch USA defeat China. However, T20 World Cup organisers hope the final at the 100 000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground can trump it.

Melbourne is Australia’s sporting capital and with the eyes of the world focusing their attention on the MCG for the Women’s Final, our state is set to embrace women’s sport like no other location has before.

The final will be held on International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8, at the MCG.  St Catherine’s girls and their families are encouraged to attend to participate in this significant event.