On 22 May, the Feminism Society from the Senior School ran a workshop for the Year 5 girls who are starting their own collective to discuss feminist issues. A goal for this visit was to leave the Junior girls feeling like a strong collective and to encourage them to stand up, for not only their own, but each other’s rights.

At the beginning of the session, the Year 5 girls told us what they thought it meant to be ‘Mighty’ and it was agreed that they would be far mightier as a group! With the General Election just around the corner, we wanted to bring awareness to the fact that women have not always had the right to vote. The Feminism Society described some of the key aspects of the history of the Suffragettes and passed around photos of these mighty women who believed passionately in their right to equality and fought for it through ‘deeds not words'. We wanted the Year 5 girls to take inspiration from the drive and determination of these women.

Later in the session, we ran an exercise asking them to agree or disagree with statements, one of them being “There are boy jobs and girl jobs” which is a quote from our Prime Minister Theresa May. These girls had a very impressive ability to think critically about these statements and debate them!

To finish the session, the Feminism Society taught the Year 5 girls how to make thread bracelets using the famous purple, white and green colours of the Suffragettes which they could later give to another member of the group. The aim of this craft-making task was to get the girls working together, encourage them to feel like a collective and feel empowered by giving each other tokens of their solidarity. 

The formation of this ‘Mighty Girls' group at the Junior School will be such a positive and empowering platform for these young feminists to develop the questioning and wilful minds they’ll need to navigate the world as they grow up.