From the Principal – Break The Bias

The annual celebration of International Women’s Day took pride of place at St Catherine’s this week with purple ribbons shared at Assembly, and our Senior School students and staff repeatedly singing Girl on Fire following Charlotte Myer’s stunning performance.

This year, the IWD theme is #BreakTheBias aimed at promoting a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. As part of the theme, people are being encouraged to strike a #BreakTheBias pose, which involves crossing your arms in front of your chest.

At St Catherine’s, the achievements of many wonderful role models contribute to our School’s rich culture of female empowerment. Some examples below from just the past two weeks alone are highlighted below.

St Catherine’s Physics teacher, Ms Clare Haysom, is one of Victoria’s emerging elite Cricket umpires. Last weekend, Clare debuted as a Premier Men’s 1st XI Umpire. Clare wears Cap No. 604, but most notably, she is only the third woman ever!

Year 12 student and athlete, Olivia Nigido-Scott has once again qualified to represent Victoria in her 11th Australian Track and Field Championships. At 17 years of age, earlier in the athletics season, she threw an Under 23 national qualifier in the Hammer. She also recently competed in the South Australian Track and Field Championships, receiving a silver medal in the Under 20 Discus and a Bronze in the Hammer. Upon returning to Melbourne, Olivia threw a personal best performance to place third in the Under 20 Hammer at the Victorian Track and Field Championships. This is her first season throwing a 4-kilogram Hammer (Under 18 women throw 3 kilograms) but with another year in this age group, she is looking forward to improving on her recent performances.

Photo courtesy of Athletics Victoria website

Rhea Werner (Year 10) was recently selected as a City of Boroondara, 2022 Australia Day – Young Citizen of the Year Award and was presented with the Award by the Honourable, Josh Frydenberg, Australian Federal Treasurer.

The Award was presented in recognition of Rhea’s passion for nutrition, specifically relating to eating-disorder conditions for young women. Through her determination to highlight the issue and drive change, she was invited to join Harvard STRIPED – a public health initiative focussing on eating disorder prevention, led by Professors and Clinical Practitioners from Harvard University and the Boston Royal Children’s Hospital in the US.

Through her active involvement, Rhea played a crucial role in the adaptation of the Senate Bills H.2331 and S.1525 in Massachusetts, which aimed to restrict adolescents’ access to muscle building supplements and diet pills. Her invaluable contribution was recognised in Australia as she was asked to become the founding member and Co-Chair of the Body Confident Collective – a national youth advisory council focussed on eating disorder education and prevention, as well as establishing a nation-wide youth advocacy movement for nutrition-awareness, led by researchers from Melbourne, Victoria and Monash Universities.

Currently, Rhea is leading the adoption for similar legislative policies to be rolled out in Australia through different avenues to create awareness. Rhea is also an avid member of the Boroondara Youth Council and is leading the formation of a legislative event at Victorian Youth Week, backed by Harvard STRIPED and the Body Confident Collective. She is a Youth Squadron member for the St John’s Youth Division, in which she is currently working to implement nutrition education into St John’s international curriculum, and establish greater awareness.

Year 12 student Lan-Tian Yen-West was successfully awarded a 2021 inaugural Menzies Foundation Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Lan-Tian was one of only 11 who were selected to take part in the program, Australia-wide.

This week, Lan-Tian’s achievement was highlighted in The Age, International Women’s Day article highlighting women in leadership. The Emerging Leaders initiative aims to understand young people’s responses to various ethical challenges and see how they would raise peer awareness of these issues and play a role in contributing to the greater good of society.

Lan-Tian’s answer to the question asked of applicants – What does inequity mean to you? – coalesces with the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day #BreakTheBias, Lan-Tian’s response, “Inequity is when women like me are silenced.” Lan-Tian has Chinese-Australian heritage. “In Australian history, far too many women have been silenced, especially women who come from minority backgrounds.”

International Women’s Day has been recognised since the early 1900s; a period of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City, demanding improved pay, better working conditions and voting rights for women. Two years after this march in New York, the ‘rights of women’ gathered momentum across Europe and the first IWD was recognised in 1910. And whilst IWD was born out of a ‘call to action’ and a greater need for equality for women, it is also a joyous time to acknowledge the achievements and potential of women and girls.

Many women from younger generations may feel “all the battles have been won for women.” Clearly, much progress has been made since the early 1900s; we have female astronauts, prime ministers, school girls are welcomed to university, women can work and have a family. Women have real choices, this is certainly evident in Australia.

Building self-worth and encouraging young women to trust their own capabilities enables them to develop a healthy self-confidence. Encouraging girls to be mindful of their language and to accurately articulate goals, opinions, impressions and ideas, both large and small, is empowering.

Providing high-quality connections with adults, being part of a community with a shared purpose, and involvement in service to others, can also help create a greater sense of self. At St Catherine’s we connect our girls with a broad and diverse community of women, providing them perspective and clarity, along with a multitude of inspiring role models.

Michelle Carroll, Principal