15 March 2018
Equality
Equality is probably an issue that most of you ignore, because you have rights that you are happy with. But, just stop and think about other people around the globe who maybe are not as fortunate as you. In a lot of cases your gender, age, colour of skin, abilities and many other things, can mean that you are not considered equal or sometimes not given equal rights and opportunities.
Recently, we interviewed two female teachers at our school. We asked them one question, which you might want to think about too: do people ever underestimate your abilities because you are a female? If so, who? And what do they say? One teacher told us how sometimes if a misbehaving student does not know her very well, because of her gender or height, they underestimate her and presume that she is a pushover, but she also explained how once they get to know her they realise they are wrong.
When asked the question, does being a female affect your life in any way, another teacher explained how she can understand how it affects other people, but not her personally. She explained how when she grew up, she always had strong, confident, independent women surrounding her setting her great role models.
Once you take a look at these facts you will have a better understanding of what we, as women, are up against.
Women with full time jobs only earn around 77% of what their male colleague is earning.
62 million girls are denied an education around the world.
Every year an estimate of 15 million girls under the age of 18 are married.
So, what can we do today to try and raise the awareness of equality and fight for equal rights? In school we have educational assemblies telling us about influential people such as Emily Pankhurst. We are also told about events such as International Women’s day which occurs on the 8th March every year. But most importantly of all, our golden rule here at St. Cuthbert’s is to treat everyone how we wish to be treated, and that includes treating each other as equal!