Women’s History Month
24th March 21
March is Women’s History Month when we commemorate and encourage the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in our society and history and in February I was able to give an introductory webinar for the Boarding School Association involving tips on exhibitions, picking up newspapers articles and using contemporary events to reinforce the message.
Sadly the month began with the tragic murder of Sarah Everard. This led to a whole school address during registration on the subject of Femicide and violence against women, incorporating a BBC recording of Jess Phillips MP reading out a list of women killed by men in 2020.
Within college there has been a large exhibition in the Atrium highlighting women’s contributions to Business, Politics and Art, providing information on the origins of the Women’s Movement including the Suffragettes and more maverick branches like Dollo Lina in Netherlands, plus articles from the Vigil for Sarah Everard and police and media response in Press clippings.
There are posters all around the college marking the contributions of women pioneers in Medicine, Engineering and Physics where most of these women’s names are still largely unknown. There is also a notice board devoted to clips and stories about contemporary and historic women’s issues – ‘Women in Film’, ‘Silence of the Girls’, ‘No-one is too small to make a Difference’ and a display of books including those titles bought to celebrate this year’s Women’s History Month
The month’s activities ended with a Film Night showing Hidden Figures, the story of three female African-American mathematicians who played a vital role in the 1960s NASA human spaceflight programme.
