I think my first encounter with the word “feminist” was around sixth grade, when a friend of my older brother told me that if I ever wanted a boy to like me, I best not join Feminist Club when I reached high school. At the time, I took his advice seriously. He, a cool high…
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It is unfortunate that archaic traditions still proliferate in many parts of the world despite how much more socially progressive and politically conscious its inhabitants have become. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a procedure often performed to ‘prepare’ girls for adulthood and marriage. You may ask: what exactly are the health benefits of such a…
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Last year, a group of students from the University of Sydney Wom*n’s Collective began teaching workshops on feminism to high school students under the brand fEMPOWER. We began the workshops after one collective member shared her experience of coming to university with very little understanding of feminism, outside of what was offered by the…
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Hawa is a vivacious, young girl with big dreams of becoming a lawyer. Her home is Sierra Leone, a small country still on the mend after being torn asunder by a decade-long civil war. Known for its abundance of minerals and diamonds, it is ironic that life in Sierra Leone is far from glittering. A…
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There’s a saying that goes, ‘if you educate a man, you educate one person; if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’. When girls are not educated, their quality of life is lessened and escaping poverty becomes almost impossible. According to a White House report, uneducated girls have diminished economic opportunities and are more…
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I always used to groan about how pointless high school seemed. I spent countless hours analysing what the red room meant in Jane Eyre and learning maths that I still haven’t used in everyday life. But there was something we didn’t learn, that I’d only heard briefly used and out of context until university, that…
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April 14. I was probably studying on April 14. I was probably complaining about the amount of study I was doing on April 14, taking for granted my privileged education that has made me a better analyser, empathiser, and questioner. Almost 300 girls between 14 and 18 were sitting their exams on April 13 in…
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Religious and Christian education for both primary and secondary school-aged children has always been a provocative subject for debate, often with strong arguments for both its necessity as a compulsory school subject, for it being a matter of individual and familial faith, or being better off outside of the classroom. However, following a recent publication…
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Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been named chair of the Global Partnership for Education. Made up of nearly 60 developing countries, donor governments, international organisations and civil society groups, the program aims to have the world’s poorest children attending school. Ms Gillard, at the head of all this, will take control of fundraising efforts…
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Despite frequently being a compulsory part of modern-day educations, sex and relationship education, or SRE, is often brushed to one side in schools. In the UK, one in four pupils receives none at all, and many of those who do get it report it to be unsatisfactory or even factually incorrect. Many parents are unwilling…
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In most contemporary western countries, there is little difference between the educational participation of males and females. While in the past it was males that predominantly participated in the education system and the workforce, while females worked within the private realm of their home; changes in legislations and cultural values have over time made the…
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David Brown seems like your typical 50-year-old man, with a myriad of blokey interests ranging from soccer to Sunday jams on his Fender guitar. Mr Brown’s chosen occupation, however, has placed him in one of Australia’s significant minorities: the male nurse minority. It’s fair to say that the Australian workforce in the 21st century has…
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I grew up in a tiny Far North Coast town called Alstonville, nestled back from the beach in the dark, lush greenness of macadamia country. When I was a teenager, I didn’t want country living. I wanted to be like the cool girls in school, and learn how to surf, and get my belly button…
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I grew up in a tiny Far North Coast town called Alstonville, nestled back from the beach in the dark, lush greenness of macadamia country. When I was a teenager, I didn’t want country living. I wanted to be like the cool girls in school, and learn how to surf, and get my belly button…
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