"We should expect equality, not just hope for it". These were the words of our Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, at last week’s 125th anniversary of the suffrage movement event at the Isaac Royal Theatre, attended by 20 students from St Margaret’s College. Without exception, our girls came away energised by the message and excited by the possibilities.
Christchurch holds pride of place in the nation as the catalysing focal point for the successful 1892 suffrage petition, and Aotearoa New Zealand continues to exceed the statistics internationally for female representation in leadership. However, there is still some way to go to realising new combinations of leadership across the country and it falls to us to continue the work of these early Cantabrian pioneers and push beyond where society is already.
St Margaret’s College plays an important role in developing the leadership potential of young women. This is one of the many benefits of a single sex education, where our girls have access to a wide variety of opportunities to step into a leadership space without the competitive pressure that boys might add. It is our hope that this environment will support the girls in realising an expectation of equality beyond school, and take their place unhindered by gender.
There are examples of this daily across St Margaret’s, but our recent Year 12 Leadership Camp, the commitment of our Year 9 girls to sharing their ENSS culminating activities and the initiative of leaders in the Year 7/8 cohort to showcase their talent are fabulous demonstrations that we are indeed educating young women to live and lead. This bodes well for our future, and I think Kate Sheppard would have been proud.
I hope you all have a wonderful break and look forward to welcoming back our taitamāhine toa for Term 4.