This week’s Thursday Thought was brought to us by history teacher, Mr Player who talked to us about the importance of International Women’s Day which took place on Monday and Women’s History Month which is also celebrated in March.
He said: "This is the time when we commemorate and celebrate the important role that many different women have played in history - some remarkable achievements and crucial steps in the ongoing struggle for equality."
He talked about the first International Women’s Day which was commemorated in the USA in 1911 where women and men all came together to highlight the lack of equal treatment of women. Since then enormous strides have been taken, but we not only have to recognise how far we have come, but how far we still have to go.
He also spoke about the many women who have not been given the attention they deserve for their achievements. Only one in five statues commemorating the work of great people in the UK are female. When you take Queen Victoria out of the equation, that figure plummets.
He said: “We all know Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and rightly so, but we can do better and we must do better. This starts on days like today. Let’s have those conversations about women who are overlooked or silenced in history and remember their contribution.”
He spoke about women who have made an amazing contribution in history, such as Sophie Scholl a German student and anti-Nazi political activitst, Andree Peel a member of the French resistance during WWII, Helen Keller a disabilities rights activist, Anne Bonny an Irish Pirate who terrorised the Caribbean, mathematician Ada Lovelace, African American mathematician, Katherine Johnson who worked for NASA and whose calculations helped America win the space race, and, finally Florence Nightingale whose contribution to nursing continues to this day.
He finished with: "Let’s not forget the most important women of all. On Sunday it is Mother’s Day. It’s a massively important day and I encourage you all to use it and celebrate it. Take this opportunity to show your mum how grateful you are, how awesome she is, how much you appreciate what she does for you and how you are there for her."
