I am not sure that IWD 2022 has had all of the advance publicity that it should have, and given the spiraling crises that are happening at present I suppose that it’s hardly surprising. Even so there will be events worldwide this week to mark the day and to draw attention to the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women across the globe. As well as that there will be plenty of campaigning to try to accelerate the cause of gender parity. When IWD was first marked in the early part of the twentieth century it formed a part of the Suffragist and Suffragette Movements in the UK, the Socialist Party in America and similar movements in continental Europe. Now IWD is owned much more widely for a common cause towards achieving parity between the genders – and much more work is still needed as demonstrated by the recent reports on Women in the Workplace (2021) from McKinsey & Co and also the Global Gender Gap (2021) from the World Economic Forum. Bias is still alive and thriving.
Taking the UK as an example it is evident that significant progress has been made over last 30 years, with systemic reform and tackling unhelpful attitudes, discrimination and bias in policy and the working environment. Economic and societal change has been made much more difficult to avoid due to the analysis of hard data – on employment, salaries, promotion, benefits, board room representation and so on. Organizational change has been a matter of public scrutiny and debate, and the steady increase in the number of female MPs has also accelerated change and challenged stereotypes successfully. There is still much to do, but recognition should be given to the progress that has been made.
I am sure that a large number of Bishop’s students will be well aware of Tuesday’s significance, in particular over 100 sixth form girls who represent the school so well in so many ways. Since they have joined the school in September 2020 our school has become much stronger and more diverse, and it has been brilliant to see boys and girls working together to make their school really special. Our first coeducational prefect team have almost finished their year in office, and despite the pandemic and all of the restrictions that it brought they should be very proud of what they have achieved. I am very pleased that when we have the whole school photo taken in May we will capture our first two cohorts of BWS Girls as well as all of the boys. Hopefully that photo is a physical sign of Bishop’s doing what it can to endorse the move towards gender parity, launching successive generations of girls and boys towards being shapers of society in the future.
SDS
