International Womens Day Breakfast 

This year's theme for International Women’s Day was Break The Bias - something Gen students and staff celebrated at our rescheduled International Women's Day Breakfast on Tuesday 5 April 2022. 

Genazzano Alumna and Civil Engineer, Joanna Roache (2002) shared her experiences as a woman working in a field largely dominated by men. Joanna explained different types of engineering and shared various projects she has worked on, including the current Melbourne Airport Rail Project.

I was particularly struck by the fact that Joanna fell into engineering, a career which she seems to love, by process of elimination. It was reassuring to hear that we don’t need to know exactly what we want to do after school to find a profession that fits. Although, after Joanna’s speech I will certainly be looking into engineering courses!

This year, the breakfast took place later than usual due to COVID-19, about a month after International Women’s Day. However, as Joanna pointed out, celebrations of women's achievements and conversations about equality should not be limited to one day of the year, so in some ways, it was good to have the breakfast at a later date.

The postponement did not affect attendance, with over 150 students, parents and teachers purchasing tickets to support the work of the Sisters FCJ in the Philippines and Myanmar and to celebrate International Women’s Day. Thanks to everyone who helped make this such a lovely event, including the generous donations of raffle prizes.