A voice for young women at Queen Margaret's

Queen Margaret's Girls are encouraging pupils to be engaged in women's rights in Yorkshire and the North East

Posted by Charley Rogers | October 01, 2017 | Events

• #queen-margarets-girls
• #women-rights
• #national-council-of-young-women
• #yorkshire

Girls from Queen Margaret’s School, York, hosted the National Council of Young Women Conference on Monday 25th September; the first intergenerational conference of its kind in Yorkshire and the North East.

The conference brought together girls from schools across the region and invited speakers to discuss issues that affect women in today’s society and allowed them to put forward ideas that could affect policy at the heart of Westminster. As a Link School of the National Council of Young Women, girls from Queen Margaret’s will be given the opportunity to feedback their findings at the annual conference of the National Council of Women in October.

Monday’s event aimed to answer the question of whether female rights are under attack in the 21st Century; a question that all the girls at Queen Margaret’s have been working on as they have designed and created their own life-size ‘women’ on rolls of paper covered with inspirational and thought-provoking notes to use during the conference. 

Speakers included Nigel Adams, MP for Selby and Ainsty; Alison Bolton from the Kyra Women's Project, York; Amy Coates, LVI and Emily Unsworth, LVI from Queen Margaret’s; and Barbara Maddison, Vice-President of the National Council of Women. 

Jessica Miles, Head at Queen Margaret’s is delighted that the girls were able to host the conference: “This conference provides a fantastic opportunity for the girls to explore political issues in a safe environment, take their learning outside of the classroom and hone their skills in debating, presenting and negotiating. The event could also have nurtured the aspirations of the politicians of tomorrow.”

Georgina Deri, Deputy Head Girl says: “As a student of A Level Government and Politics I am extremely interested in the political landscape of Great Britain and how I can make a difference. This conference and partnership with the National Council of Young Women provides me with a voice to be able to achieve this.” 

This event took place ahead of Queen Margaret’s Sixth Form Open Evening on Thursday 16th November.