Sunday 8 March saw the celebration of International Women’s Day 2020 with the theme of #EachforEqual. The campaign theme is drawn from the notion of Collective Individualism, a concept that resonated with me. The view that we are all parts of a whole and that our individual actions, conversations, behaviours and mindsets can have an impact on our larger society.

As an English and Literature teacher at St Catherine’s, it is a privilege to be able to teach students through the study of a text, the importance of Collective Individualism and equality through the experiences and challenges of the characters, particularly the female ones. The issues they face, and how they overcome them, allows students to reflect and empathise with their journey.

Recently, I visited a Year 8 English class where the lesson focused on the challenges of cultural expectations in the film, Bend it Like Beckham. I also had the pleasure of discussing with some of the Year 12 Literature students their upcoming Oral SAC on Adaptations and Transformations, where the topics ask students to consider the proposition that women are secondary in the action of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on A Hot Tin Roof and whether the depiction of the male character Brick transforms meaning and subsequently the spirit of the text.

Currently in Year 11 English, students are immersed in the study of the play Medea. Much discussion and analysis has centred on the fierce and complicated female protagonist, Medea, who challenges the gender stereotypes of Ancient Greece. While Year 12 English has commenced their analytical study of the play, The Women of Troy, a text that at its centre examines the plight and suffering of women in an extended lamentation. The complicated nature of these texts and the journey of the female characters allows students to understand and analyse their challenges, but also their resilience. Embedded within every text are issues on gender, equality for women and the values of the wider society. In our text selection, we spend much time considering those texts that truly speak to the students. By reflecting and learning through the texts studied, students begin to understand that it is important to actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions and understand that growth comes from collective thinking.

The world our students move into post school can be complicated and they will encounter their own challenges, some not dissimilar to those characters they have spent many years discussing in various literature. However, collectively each young woman can help promote a gender equal world through empowering their thinking and enacting change.

It is through the voices of our own young women at St Catherine’s where, collectively, they will make change happen. Collectively, post school these young women will confirm their place in society by promoting an equal world which is an enabled world.

I will end with a quotation from female novelist, Charlotte Bronte who is known for creating female characters who assert themselves and challenge their society’s values.

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert …”                                                                                                             (Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte, 1847)

As the photos of St Catherine’s students below attest, we all embraced #EachforEqual from Year 7 to Year 12!