STUDENTS and staff at St Mary’s Christian Brothers' Grammar School celebrated International Women’s Day with a panel and discussion event.
The school welcomed Tahnee McCorry (CEO and founder of White Ribbon NI) and Professor Janice Carruthers (Professor of French Linguistics and Dean of Research in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences QUB) as guest speakers for the event.
Both women shared inspirational accounts of their career journeys and key roles and they responded to challenging questions posed by members of the school's Social Justice Advocacy Group.
Claire Wright, who helped to organise the event, explained about the importance of social justice at the school.
“The Social Justice Advocacy Group was founded in 2016, and from there it sort of snowballed from food hampers to food bank – we started with a real charitable focus," she said.
“We do a lot of advocacy work. It then dawned on me that we have somewhat overlooked gender inequality, so we’ve decided to place more emphasis on that area this year around.
“As an all-boys' school, we have a moral obligation to provide our 1,200 students with the tools to challenge gender discrimination.
“The event also aims to normalise celebrating female role models in their lives: their mothers, sisters, grandmothers, and in later life, their coworkers, friends or partners.
“These young men will be part of our future, and they should be allies of women.
“We follow the ethos of Edmund Rice. When he founded his first school, his goal was to challenge social injustice.
“We’re going to Geneva to sit at the 55th Human Rights Council Session at the United Nations.
“Giving those less fortunate a platform to speak helps to break down stereotypes for our students.
“We are also working with White Ribbon NI in September to try and platform women who have experienced gender-based discrimination or violence to come and speak to the students about that – I believe that would be an amazing opportunity.
“Hopefully what we’re doing here at St Mary’s will inspire other single-gender schools to do something similar. It really does make a difference."
