吃瓜不打烊

23 March 2022

International Women’s Day was celebrated earlier this month with the theme ‘break the bias’. St Columba’s College, Essendon, co-captains Adriana Cilia and Annalise Ferbrache share their reflections on the day:

As you can imagine, when International Women’s Day is celebrated at an all-girls school, it is a very significant day in the calendar. Our International Women’s Day celebrations at St Columba’s consisted of events and activities that ultimately aimed to empower students to be whoever they want to be and to do whatever it is that they want to do.

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, we were invited to attend a breakfast organised by The Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia. Held at Parliament House, we were privileged to have the opportunity to actively listen to 吃瓜不打烊 Lord Mayor Sally Capp talk about her experiences as a female leader in a male-dominated industry. Sally’s speech was filled with captivating and compelling stories about momentous women who have contributed to making a difference to women’s rights. Following her speech, we were also able to participate in a Q & A session, where we were encouraged to ask Sally questions regarding how we are able to support one another in the further empowerment of women in our society today.

At our school assembly on International Women’s Day, we invited members of the St Columba’s College alumnae to form a panel and talk about their experiences at the college, how their experiences at St Columba’s empowered them to explore the industry that they’re part of and some of the experiences that they have faced during their careers, particularly as successful women. We, as a community, are grateful to have the opportunity to be able to collaborate with past St Columba’s students who are the definition of strong, brave and inspiring female role models. Our interactions with them on International Women’s Day highlighted some of the similarities of the experiences which we shared with them during their time at the college. This includes the support and kindness shown by teachers, as well as the encouragement of being told that there was never anything that they couldn’t do.

The stories and experiences that were shared by our guest panellists have, without a doubt, inspired us and other members of our community. It was a truly wonderful and memorable experience to be able to connect with these successful St Columba’s College alumnae, and we hope that we are able to maintain these connections with not only these female panellists, but also other alumnae long into the future.

Collectively, this International Women’s Day, we were all empowered to face the challenges that are thrown at us, particularly as women in society. We were encouraged to take on every opportunity that comes our way and stand up to the injustices that we see in the world. As a body of strong, brave, kind and unique females at St Columba’s College, we were inspired to come together in solidarity to help break the bias by further educating ourselves on the feminist movement and empowering girls around us in any way that we can.