Around the College

Pauline Toner Award Recipient 2021

Since 2015 to mark International Women's Day,  Vicki Ward MP for Eltham (CLC, 1986) has been celebrating & recognising young women leaders exemplifying the values of the late Pauline Toner & attending this event has become one of the highlights of my year.

The Pauline Toner Award for 2021 has been deservedly won by Laura Galati (CLC 2021) for her community work in disability & refugee support.  Well done to all of the nominees from our local community, you are all inspiring young women and to Eltham College for hosting the event.

International Women's Day 2021 Artwork

Caitlyn Jahne, 2021 Visual Arts Leader

This year, the International Women’s Day theme was ‘Choose to Challenge’, paired with the visual of raising your hand and vowing to challenge gender inequity. As a girls' school, it is vital that our entire community is aware of the part they play in abolishing gender inequity, no matter their gender or role at the college. The piece that I created is an attempt to represent our college as a whole, by taking and combining pictures of students and teachers from multiple year levels and departments, to represent the range of talents and personalities which coexist amongst these walls, seen in simple things like the badges on a blazer, or how high someone has pulled their socks. These things, which we often don’t think much of separately, represent the beauty and individuality of each and every member of our community. I chose to create this image to show that we can only combat gender inequity if we work together, and that we must all choose to challenge the blockers that exist to hold us back in our everyday lives. I would like to give special attention to Mr Vlam, whose tie sits at the centre of the piece to remind us that gender inequity does not exclusively influence the lives of women but is an oppressive tool against everyone in our society. The tie, though a recognised western symbol of professionalism, creates a culture that says you must present a certain way to be worthy of respect, and this is an ideal which is a stark enemy of feminism. By having Mr Vlam at the heart of the piece, it not only reminds us that you do not need to be a female to be a feminist, or to be impacted by inequities, but that our worth is not in the ways we present, but in who we are. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or a strange, Frankensteinesque culmination of the two, it is important for us all to come together and fight gender inequities one day, one movement, and one necktie at a time.