March 8th marked International Women’s Day, but Carluke High School took this a few steps further and, with the support of Carluke Development Trust, celebrated International Women’s Week, with a week long timetable of events for all age groups.
The event included discussions with local MP Angela Crawley, and MSP Aileen Campbell, as well as former pupil Jayne Donaldson who spoke to S3 about her career as Dean of Faculty Health Sciences and Sport at the University of Stirling.
Jayne was joined by Lynne McTaggart, managing partner of Gordon Ferguson & Co. Chartered Accountants, and Leona Murphy, senior partner and director at Morison and Smith, solicitors.
All three speakers discussed fighting against inequality and gender imbalance, with Jayne highlighting that only a third of professors in Scotland are female and only 18% of managing partners in accountancy are female.
Catriona Kirkpatrick, development manager at feminist policy group Engender, spoke to S1 pupils about a range of topics still impacted by gender imbalance in Scotland. Through a quiz, Catriona pointed out that, of the 1.3 billion people living in the world, over 70% are women.
The achievements of local women were highlighted through talks held with Gill Murray MBE, a local business owner and fundraiser for Cancer Research, as well as author Paula McGuire, who started her Paula Must Try Harder group in response to her personal struggle with mental health.
The event was the second year of hosting the week long event and Carluke Development Trust would like to thank Emma Drennan and Kathleen McCormick for their hard work and partnership on the event.
