High tea for high achievers
10 March 2020
• Business and Professional Women Joondalup-Wanneroo (BPW) and local MPs host event for International Women’s Day
• Event catered for by Mater Dei College Year 12 Certificate II Hospitality students
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Business and Professional Women Joondalup-Wanneroo (BPW), along with local MPs Emily Hamilton and Jessica Stojkovski (both BPW members) hosted a morning tea at Mater Dei College on Monday.
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Each for Equal – an equal world is an enabled world.
Attendees heard from two guest speakers—Emily Prior and Sharon Wood-Kenney who presented different perspectives on why we need gender equality.
Emily is a Year 8 student at Mater Dei College. As a girl with a disability, Emily has achieved so much being an activist, model, and actor.
Sharon Wood-Kenney, who was inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame this past weekend, spoke of the need to support our young leaders, ensuring there is representation from the indigenous community.
Business and Professional Women are active in the northern corridor and focused on providing a forum where members and the wider community can hear from expert speakers on issues facing women locally and around the world.
Their projects and programs focus on what matters to women including health, equal pay and leadership skills – our goal is to help women gain the skills they need to succeed in whatever they want to do.
Mater Dei College provided an ideal setting for the morning tea in the students Treetop Café. Year 12 Hospitality students completing a Certificate II catered for the High Tea event as part of an assessment.
Comments attributed to BPW Joondalup/Wanneroo President Helen Toon:
“2020 is the year we will call 'Generation Equality' where we will work together to drive change across generations and countries.
“International Women's Day is promoted by BPW Joondalup-Wanneroo each year and is an opportunity to share locally what's happening globally.”
Comments attributed to Mater Dei College Principal Annette Morey:
“We were honoured to be approached by Emily Hamilton, MLA and BPW as the host venue for such a wonderful event. International Women’s Day allows us to come together as a community and celebrate the many social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women throughout history as well as promote respect, equal opportunities amongst out students and inspire the next generation of women.
“The high tea was a lovely opportunity for us to pay tribute to the many female leaders within our school.”
Comments attributed to Emily Hamilton:
“The IWD morning tea at Mater Dei college was a lovely way to showcase the skills of hospitality students whilst coming together to discuss gender equity.
“IWD is a time to celebrate our women and their achievements, but also our male champions for change!
“Women are half of our community. Let’s get it right now so that our daughters don’t have to fight for equal pay or equal representation.”
Comments attributed to Jessica Stojkovski:
“International Women’s Day is a wonderful opportunity to hold up and celebrate women and girls and the wonderful work they do in our communities.
“We have come a long way on the gender equality journey, but there is still so far to go. In Western Australia there is still a 22 per cent gender pay disparity whereas other states have reduced that—for example, South Australia has a nine per cent gap.”
Media Contact: Emily Hamilton 9300 3990
Photograph: Helen Toon - President BPW Joondalup-Wanneroo; Sharon Wood-Kenney – Aboriginal Community Engagement Co-Design Consultant and WA Women’s Hall of Fame inductee; Emily Hamilton – state member of parliament for Joondalup and (front) Emily Prior – Year 8 Mater Dei College student, model, actor and activist."