On Tuesday, March 8th, Trinity College School joined communities around the world to mark International Women’s Day. This annual event, which falls within Women’s History Month, is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women and to call for gender equality. The theme of this year’s event was #BreaktheBias, while the United Nations prompted people worldwide to consider “gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow.”
At TCS, the Women’s Issues Awareness Club (WIAC) led efforts to honour this day. A new club formed in September 2021, WIAC has a goal to provide a safe space to discuss issues impacting women and girls, as well as to undertake fundraising and outreach and promote dialogue within the school community with respect to women’s issues. For example, in the lead-up to Christmas the group organized a drive to collect personal items, clothing and gifts for the Shoebox Project, to support those identifying as women, transgender or non-binary living in shelters.
For International Women’s Day, WIAC encouraged all Junior and Senior School students to wear the colour purple, and to donate to a fundraiser in support of Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape. This organization is “a grassroots, women and non-binary people run collective…[that] works towards a violence-free world by providing anti-oppressive, feminist peer support to survivors of gender-based or sexualized violence.”
WIAC leaders Kasey Golding and Stephanie Lane explained, “International Women’s Day was founded on March 19, 1911 after advances made by suffragist movements. It is now universally celebrated on March 8th in over 100 countries. We continue to celebrate this day as it represents the efforts of women throughout history, and the current battles that women are fighting today.”
In the Senior School, the library offered a display of books on women and their achievements throughout history, and a list of notable podcasts was part of a display outside the academic office. In the Junior School, the Help Stop Discrimination group, comprised of the members of the Grade 5 class, launched their first initiative. They chose significant women in history and researched their stories. They recorded a video that was shown to the whole Junior School community in honour of International Women’s Day. As well, WIAC leaders Kasey and Stephanie joined the Junior School assembly last Friday to share more about their club and to inspire action within the Junior School in partnership with their efforts.
To learn more about International Women's Day, visit: www.internationalwomensday.com.
