From the Principal
Equal opportunity through co-education Philip Grutzner Principal
On the second Sunday of May each year, we celebrate Mothers Day. At that time we are bombarded with junk mail, television ads and other marketing material trying to persuade us that our mothers ‘need’ this or that. And sadly, these advertisements perpetuate long-held stereotypes. Wouldn’t it be nice if our television advertisements showed the fathers in the supermarket aisle, making the school lunches and applying the toilet cleaner and mothers buying the ute, using the new brand of motor mower and quenching a hard earned thirst? The blame for this does not rest entirely with advertisers, because they do the market research and understand who holds the spending power. Australian society has made great progress in the past 100 or so years, with important landmarks including the right for women to vote in 1902, legislation supporting equal pay in 1972 and the introduction of maternity leave in 1973. Thankfully, at modern social functions no one would even think to include the message, ‘Ladies bring a plate’, women are no longer excluded from sections of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and various occupations that were the domain of just women, or men, have opened up to both genders. 2 | Torch
Women in Australia’s defence forces can serve on the front line, and we welcome men entering the care professions and encourage more female engineers. In wider society it is pleasing to see great progress in gender equality and that we are making progress in overcoming stereotypes and eliminating discrimination. There is no longer a widely held view that women are only homemakers and caterers. However, society still has a way to go. Sadly, the proportion of women in senior positions, board rooms and politics, including our current federal Cabinet, is not as high
as it should be. In addition to this, many working women are often not only spending long hours in the workplace, but are expected to manage the entire busy family schedule at home as well. Fortunately, education has changed too. Various school subjects were divided along gender lines – woodwork was ‘for boys’ and needlework and home economics were ‘for girls’ – but this is certainly no longer the case. Carey is an independent and progressive school. We are also a proudly co-educational school, thus reflecting life after school, which is not segregated.
