On Wednesday this week we celebrated International Women’s Day.

Over 100 years ago in 1910, International Women’s Day was first celebrated, with the aim to achieve equality for all people across the world, which we are still fighting for today. 

The group of women who led the fight were called the Women’s Social and Political Union, otherwise known as the Suffragettes. They were a strong and active group of women who wore the colours purple, green and white, which are now associated with International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day is an annual event that celebrates all the amazing things women have achieved. It is a way to show how women have and continue to influence the world. As well as celebrating brilliant women and all women, it is also used as a day to highlight and raise awareness about issues that women have faced in the past and still face today.

The International Women's Day 2023 theme is DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality. This theme focuses on how technology and education in the digital age can help the empowerment of women and girls across the world.

Importantly, this International Women's Day 2023 theme will also explore how to protect the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and how to combat online gender-based violence.

Many experts from the fields of technology and innovation, as well as gender equality activists, will come together to discuss how to improve access to digital tools and bridge the digital skills divide. This will help to make sure that all people have equal access to digital technology and the opportunities it provides.

It is great to see Christchurch Girls’ High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora being recognised as an important local educational voice on issues relating to women and girls. We should take up this role as the largest girls’ school in the South Island and the second oldest girls’ school in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our students have placed their voice in the national debate on these issues via the school Sexual Harassment Survey undertaken in 2021.

As a result of that work, the NZ National Council of Women and the school have built a relationship of shared interest which has resulted in students speaking alongside adult women professionals and Ministers of the Crown at the annual NZNCW Hilda Lovell Smith celebration evening. The NZNCW has opened its first school branch at Christchurch Girls' High School / Te Kura o Hine Waiora last year and our students will be working towards legislation change for compulsory consent education in NZ schools, similar to that which Australia introduced last year. NZNCW are providing mentoring, advice and access to funding for this project. It is important that our students have constructive avenues to work for change in areas they are passionately interested in and also learn that real change takes time and the hard work of advocacy.

On Monday evening four senior students and I were invited to attend the United Nations Women Aotearoa New Zealand evening celebrating International Women’s Day locally. Speakers included the Honourable Poto Williams, local MP Sarah Pallett and local city Councillor Sarah Templeton.

UN Women is the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women with a mission to ensure that globally all women and girls have equal opportunities. ​Women’s empowerment is about ending violence, responding to women’s urgent needs in an emergency, providing training and supporting women’s employment, leadership and economic development. Their role in Aotearoa New Zealand is to mobilise women’s empowerment efforts through raising awareness about women’s issues and providing support towards UN Women’s programmes in our neighbouring Pacific countries and around the world.

Our Acting Deputy Principal Maria Lemalie also attended the International Women’s Day Breeze Breakfast on Wednesday by invitation, again with some senior students.  

Last Sunday we hosted a gathering of the Old Girls’ Association for afternoon tea and speakers. As I looked at our past students covering a spectrum of decades and our current student leaders who were present, I reflected that while the world has changed in so many ways across the decades and, while the experiences of the women in the room were so diverse, for a girls’ school the needs and empowerment of women remains constantly central to the educational purpose of the school regardless of changing context.

Ngā mihi

Christine O'Neill, Principal