British HC: ‘Keep making a change’
More needs to be done to ensure gender equality, British High Commissioner Laura Clarke says.
‘‘If you look around the world, we’ve come a long way but we’ve got a lot further to go.
‘‘I think we all need to keep working on it and challenging where progress needs to be made,’’ she said.
Clarke visited the Southland Girls’ High School yesterday to speak to students and mark the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.
It was her first visit to the region and, while her flight was diverted to Queenstown making her a day late to Invercargill, she was excited to make it to the school, she said.
Clarke was appointed as the British high commissioner to New Zealand in January. She is the youngest person to be in the role, the second woman and the first woman to have children while in the role.
She attended a girls’ school in Essex, a county in southeast England. ‘‘For me, I really enjoy going around and talking at schools. Students learn so much from there and we still have so much to learn,’’ she said.
It was a big year in women’s rights, with 125 years of women’s suffrage in New Zealand and 100 years of partial suffrage in Britain, as well as having several women in powerful positions in both countries, she said.
‘‘In lots of ways, it’s becoming normal . . . in the past 20 years 11 of those you’ve had a female prime minister.
‘‘Your prime minister [Jacinda Ardern] is fabulous and having a baby. That’s amazing as it says to women everywhere that there’s no job that does not allow you to be a mother. No-one said to men that they can’t, so it’s not to be said to women either.’’
She believed it was important for females, especially at a school age, to see women in power as role models because for earlier generations it was different.
‘‘New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote, which was a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.
‘‘We need to celebrate that achievement and remember how far we’ve come.’’
However, there was still a long way to go with pay equity, sexual assault, male dominance in certain industries and more, she said.
Clarke told students to believe in themselves, to learn how to fail and take chances, to work out their pattern in life and find the right partner.
‘‘Go out there and keep making a change . . . there’s nothing you cannot do if you put your minds to it,’’ she told them.
Principal Yvonne Browning said the school tried to encourage students daily.
She was proud of the school’s partnership with the aluminium smelter at Tiwai, at which 34 women from the school had become engineers.
‘‘We are very proud of Southland Girls’ High School students who have become leaders in many fields.’’
Clarke spoke to about 130 people at Civic Theatre on Wednesday evening, then after the school talk she went to Murihiku Young Parents’ Learning Centre, Te Tomairangi Marae, then to Stewart Island.