Friday Headlines
the weekly newsletter from EHS
IWD: Our Female Inspiration
11 March 2022
In Senior School this week, International Women’s Day (IWD) was marked with a special assembly. The focus was inspirational women, delivered by three of our very own inspirational women, the formidable trio that is the Leadership Team of Fareedat, Lucy and Natalia. They gave examples of four extraordinary women who, for them, defined the term ‘inspirational’, in contrasting but equally compelling ways.
Natalia’s inspiration was the Austrian-American actress and inventor Hedy Lamar who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS and other wireless communications systems. Celebrated for her beauty and her rise to Hollywood movie star, Lamarr’s scientific mind was widely overlooked. Regardless, throughout her career she continued to innovate and experiment, eventually collaborating with George Antheil for the benefit of the US Military, inventing a new communication system with the intention of guiding war torpedoes to their targets via a system of “frequency hopping” amongst radio waves, preventing the interception of the radio waves.
Lucy brought two inspirational women to our attention. She spoke about Katie Piper who survived an acid attack at the hands of her boyfriend in 2008, resulting in major damage to her face and blindness in one eye. In 2009, she waived her right to anonymity to raise awareness about burns victims and has since used her platform to found the Katie Piper Foundation to help victims of burns and other disfigurements. Lucy had also taken particular inspiration from The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie. Novelist Adichie speaks about how our lives and cultures are composed of many overlapping stories and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood was put forward by self-confessed bibliophile Fareedat. Atwood’s works encompass a variety of themes including gender and identity, religion and myth and the power of language. She is best known for her female perspective though often eschews the label of feminist and has been recognised for the political thread that runs through her life and works. A quote from Offred, a character in the dystopian novel The Handmaids Tale, speaks of the female experience. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.”
Whilst we often have a tendency to look outwards for our inspiration, the girls suggested that actually, if we look closely enough inspiration is also all around us and often much closer to home. How many inspirational women do we know in our own lives? Our female relatives? Perhaps a favourite teacher who has gone the extra mile? Friends who give unfailing support and encouragement on a daily basis?
The sentiments were echoed by Mrs Macro who reminded of the importance of lifting each other up as women, and the sometimes overlooked power we all have to make a difference to another person whether that be through our words, our actions or simply a reassuring smile to a fellow classmate.
Happy International Women’s Day to everyone in the EHS community!
IDW
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