Student Ellie-Jo Johnstone reports:
International Women’s Day 2017 promoted the slogan #BeBoldForChange, encouraging men and women all over the world to make a bold choice in promoting gender equality. As Sociology students at Loreto we are encouraged to take matters into our own hands when working towards a gender equal world. O
n March 8th, using posters featuring statistics and feminist slogans, pupils were asked to be creative and, more importantly, bold, by posing with the posters and taking a ‘selfie’ which will be featured in an #InternationalWomensDay slideshow. This aims to show how the students and staff at Loreto strive to promote the values of strength and equality for women internationally.
Our class also contributed to a major campaign close to our hearts entitled ‘Girls Count’. 130 million girls in contemporary society won’t go to school today, tomorrow or any other day for that matter, as young girls all over the world aren’t offered any form of free academic education. However, this is where the #GirlsCount campaign springs into action. To create the world’s longest video, the GirlsCount campaign encourages people to record themselves drawing, painting or even singing a number between 1 and 130 million to represent a young girl living life with no education. These shorts videos will then be combined and promoted to raise awareness for International Women’s Day and to encourage leaders around the world to take strong action. Our class created its own video for the campaign under the number 2,851 and we would like to encourage each pupil/class to make their own video by clicking the link below and being creative.
The ideas behind International Women’s Day should not just be promoted one day a year: help by trying to #BeBoldForChange as often as you can!