International Womens Day
Abbey delivers
Our School Captain Abbey Phillips delivered the following speech at the Annual WDHS International Women's Day luncheon this week. She received many deserved accolades from those present for her message and the way in which she delivered it. Well done Abbey.
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It’s such an honour to be speaking to you all today. My name is Abbey Phillips, and I am a student at Baimbridge College Hamilton. International women’s day is celebrated every year, and is a focal point for women’s rights. IWD means many different things, to lots of different people.
Growing up I wanted to be a teacher, but on reflection I think this is because that was the stereotypical response, that was the expectation. As I grew up, I knew that I wasn’t going to be the typical answer to the typical question. I was going to do what was unexpected, in the foreseeable future I am determined to join the Australian Army and eventually become a Mounted Police Officer. These goals were only recognized as I saw the range of opportunities and choices available today and that they could be relevant for someone like me.
Empowerment is influential in all aspects of my life and many of my peers alike. I don’t consider myself a ‘feminist’ - to me, this day is about choice. I understand and appreciate the difficulties women have faced and the rights that women have had to fight for, raise and create awareness of. While recognizing what women before me have done, which was once thought to be impossible. This idea of my self-confidence is not to be diminishing, but to thanks to the brave women who have come before me, the younger generation doesn’t need to consider whether or not they’re an equalist. We are equal and becoming more so every day, with more and more opportunities we’ve never had before. What I take for granted, measures the success of the women who have come before me. As Meghan Markle, the UN’s women’s advocate at the time, said “international women’s day serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come, but is a mid-celebration of the reminder of the road ahead.”
There are many individuals that are making a small difference in their everyday lives. Individual women are all clever and capable, but together we are powerful. Today as we are seated alongside one another, we celebrate how strong we all are together. Today is also a Celebration of the choices we make on a daily basis to enrich our own lives- earn the same income as our male counterparts and become more financially independent. We earn, care for, nurture our family’s health and wellbeing, lastly Celebrating that women have finally gained the well-deserved role within our society, which in turn is enhancing our community.
Here today we are much like an engine. We each play a role, big or small, to drive this society to work equally, this engine only runs if we work together, to become stronger and powerful. Because by ourselves we are just small parts, it’s when we come together as a whole, that change begins to happen.
As the western civilisation is finally beginning to impose positive ideals and actions for women, the developing countries is a different story. Women are being denied the right to an education, persecuted against with millions of girls missing an education. When the century began 20 years ago there was a major push to get girls worldwide into school. There has been notable success, but it is not enough as within 44 countries there’s 20 % of women who are still illiterate. This gap in women’s equality is especially prominent is conflicting war zones. We cannot call ourselves successful because our privileged countries have finally woken up to reality. When there are millions of women that still have no rights, no merit to their names. We cannot stand for this. One country’s success does not determine another’s. We cannot fully celebrate equality because by definition all needs to be equal. Not just in our advanced country, women of all race, and all nationality’s needs to be equal. We must balance this unequal scale. Put in place policies ensuring our children of the future get the education and the rights they deserve. We will not leave them behind.
Although no education for women is minimising our goal there has been, exciting changes beginning to happen. We’ve had movements such as the #MeToo and the #times up. These incredible movements have given women the chance to have a voice, encourage them to speak up from assault cases. Certain foundations have been established to give women the access to an education, such as the Malala foundation. Which was established after Malala Yousafzai defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was later shot because it was not considered her place to speak. She’s now ensuring that no girl has to face the criticism that she did. But she can not do this alone. To move forward from here this is what we need to happen. More movements, educating women on their rights, financial support with funding to developing countries, what we really need is change. We can no longer just talk about it, we need to do it.
We are moving slowly to a very exciting time in time in history, where the world expects gender balance. Society notices its absence and celebrates its presence. Many societies have moved on from women having to be successful in a man’s world. Everywhere, gender equality is on the community’s radar and impacting the journey ahead. Stereotypes and bias are more likely to be recognized and called out. And more diverse representation of women in workplaces is present. There is still a continuing need for more progressive mindsets and inclusive behaviours to be formed. But if this is what we have achieved in such a short amount of time, I cannot wait to see the future."
