Courage, connectedness and collaboration: gender equity at Carey

Kalisha, Rose, Emma and Ella Year 10 students and representatives of the Gender Equity Group

At Carey, we are always working toward gender equality in all aspects of our school and in the broader community. Across the world, gender inequality remains a problem – including here in Australia. The Carey Gender Equity Group provides a forum where students can discuss the big issues as well as the more subtle behaviours and language we witness every day that can reinforce stereotypes and prejudices. As a coeducational school, issues of gender equality amongst peers become even more important. In the Gender Equity Group, boys and girls come together and proactively seek to educate and heighten awareness of these issues amongst the student body in the hope of influencing positive change. It won’t be long until our generation becomes responsible for the future of social issues like these. As the leaders of tomorrow, now more than ever it is important that we educate people about the unique biases that both men and women face in our society today. In doing this, we are creating a future in which this generation and generations to come will not need to worry about the imbalances we face today. The Gender Equity Group was founded by a few passionate Senior School students in 2015, driven in particular by Chloe Bouw (OCG 2016). Their initial main goal was to create alternative uniform options for girls, and the group

10 | Torch has since developed into a forum that addresses all sorts of gender inequity issues. The group’s ultimate mission is to have fairness of treatment for boys and girls inside Carey and throughout the community, reaching far beyond our school. Regardless of gender or beliefs, we want all opportunities and treatment to be equal at Carey. Our goal is for future generations to not just understand what gender equality means,

but to live in complete equality every day. We want people to never be afraid to take a stand when they see inequality. We want them to be aware of what is right and what is not, and be able to make choices that will make the world a better place overall. We often hear at Carey that through our education, we will be inspired and equipped to create positive change; the Gender Equity Group aims to do just that.

‘Our goal is for future generations to not just understand what gender equity means, but to live in complete equity every day. We want people to never be afraid to take a stand when they see inequality.’

In our work together, the group is a hive of Positive Learner Attribute activity. We naturally employ many of the Attributes to our discussions, particularly connectedness – building relationships with integrity, empathy, fairness, justice and respect; collaboration – listening to and respecting others’ viewpoints and allowing everyone to contribute; and courage – exploring new opportunities, ideas and strategies. The Gender Equity Group has been working on changing gender stereotypes within the Carey community, and has made significant progress in doing so. One example of this is the introduction of the girls’ pants and shorts. This alternative uniform allows students to move more freely and participate in more of the activities they want to do, as well as symbolically refuting gender stereotypes and spearheading Carey’s progressiveness. The group also identified that advertisements for the Mothers Day Lunch previously included imagery that perpetuated stereotypes about women. To reflect the women of today’s society and challenge these stereotypes, we influenced the change to a new design that we think better speaks to all Carey mothers. Additionally, after feedback from parents and the Gender Equity Group, an alternative event was offered in 2019 for mothers not able to attend during the day. We were thrilled to hear that the Mothers Dinner sold out in its inaugural year. We are also supporters of and MCs at the annual International Women’s Day Breakfast. In conjunction with the Old Carey Grammarians Association, Carey hosts this important event with a talk from an inspiring former student. This year’s event was amazing and we thank everyone who was there, especially our wonderful guest speaker Kairsty Wilson (OCG 1979), a lawyer with the Association of Employees with Disability Legal Centre who fights for the rights of workers with disabilities. Kairsty encouraged us to follow our passions, not give up on the things that matter, work hard and use our creativity and individual skills and attributes to fight for equality. These values are exactly what we try to uphold in the Gender Equity Group. If you are in the Middle or Senior School and you are interesting in supporting gender equality, get in contact with leanne.guillon@carey.com.au to join the Gender Equity Group.