International Women’s Day at Victorian Parliament

On Friday, February 23rd, some Mac.Rob students had the wonderful opportunity to attend an International Women’s Day event in the Victorian Parliament, where four wonderful women in STEM (Fern Hames PSM, Dr. Catherine Lopes, A/Professor Jen Martin and A/Professor Vanessa Wong) discussed their experiences going to Antarctica and the experiences or challenges of women and non-binary peoples in STEM.

We first began by boarding the trams to get to Parliament, where we went through the security checks and we shortly led inside a room where we were allowed to ask questions to a guide about Parliament. Afterwards, we were directed through a grand room with paintings of Victorian premiers or royalty that had a large sculpture of Queen Victoria in the middle, to the legislative assembly chamber.

In the legislative assembly chamber, we assorted ourselves into the seats and patiently waited for the session to begin. It was introduced by the speaker of the assembly, Hon. Maree Edwards MP. There was a practice trial and everyone cheered when their respective school’s name got called. Some were a bit tentative, but when the real thing started, we cheered loudly. The session was broadcast on Facebook and initiated by Natasha Mitchell, the presenter of ABC’s ‘Big Ideas.’

They talked about their experiences in Antarctica and expressed their devastation as they mentioned how being in Antarctica allowed them to see the detrimental impacts humans have had on the environment, with glaciers melting faster than ever, diseases that were once trapped in ice being uncovered, terrible impacts on animal migration/living patterns and how all of this would be affecting the future generations.

Further discussion relating to the topic was had and then it was open for questions. A lot of them involved being a woman in STEM, their careers, and the challenges of that in a male-dominated field. Their advice was to be confident, not back down or say phrases normally used to downplay one’s own comments, and that we were already making changes to the status quo just by already having an interest in STEM. They discussed how their career paths related to the topic of climate change and the struggles they had to overcome to get to where they were.

At the end of the session, chocolates were kindly given out to Mac.Rob students by Dr Catherine Lopes (they were delicious). We got the opportunity to take pictures with and ask the presenters questions.

Overall, it was a very educational and unique experience which we were all grateful to have had. By even changing small habits in our daily routines, we can make a difference and create a better environment for future generations, where they won’t have to constantly deal with new, defrosted diseases and animal populations being rapidly wiped out.

Anh N (11A)