E-ACT City Heights Academy in Lambeth has celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) this month.

The first International Women’s Day was held over a century ago in 1911, IWD isn’t country, group or organisation specific, it’s a day of collective global activism and celebration that belongs to all those committed to forging women’s equality.

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion. To truly include women means to openly embrace their diversity of race, age, ability, faith and body image; worldwide, women must be included in all fields of endeavour.

Students at E-ACT City Heights Academy were visited by a range of inspirational women on the day. Nyalima Conteh-Mosere, Founder of ‘The Cool Thinkers’ who encouraged girls to follow their individual passions, be authentic and not be held back by expectations of what is ‘cool.’ Nyalima is also the inventor of the innovative Chess Challenge Cards and a highly sought after Chess Coach. Her journey into becoming a cool thinker started at the tender age of 10 where she was introduced to the game of chess through her primary school teacher.

Sofia Strachan, CEO of ‘Just as You Are (JAYA)’ inspired young girls to be brave and know their self-worth, she created JAYA to educate young people on what a healthy relationship looks like and the warning signs of an abusive relationship. Eve Phillips who is a commercial analyst at Manchester United football team also came along to encourage girls to see sports as an environment that is equally for women as it is for men.

Lastly, the students heard from Nana Boadu , a Construction Manager at Mace Group Construction who is breaking barriers as a woman in a heavily male-dominated industry. Although STEM professions are widely regarded as central to the economy, gender equality in those industries is yet to be achieved. There is a wide gap between girls and boys that study STEM subjects beyond GCSE (35% of girls and 80% of boys). When it comes to university, just 25% of graduates in STEM subjects are women.

The academy also had assemblies and tutor time activities themed around International Women’s Day and staff and students made pledges to themselves and to the cause for how they would fight to support IWD and equality.

E-ACT have recently released their latest Opening Minds Opening Doors Podcast which is all about women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) on which three inspiring women talk about their female role models, stereotypes around STEM jobs, how to be confident of your place in a male dominated industry, how things have changed in the last decade and why it’s important to encourage girls to consider a wide range of careers.