High School Students Receive Awards on Women’s Suffrage Day

Christchurch High School Students Receive Awards on Women’s Suffrage Day

Students from Aranui High and Rangi Ruru Girls’ School have been awarded first and second place respectively in the 2015 Lois Middlemiss Memorial Award.

The award is an annual competition for poetry, and winners were named yesterday on NZ Women’s Suffrage Day at the Kate Sheppard Memorial on Oxford Terrace in Christchurch.

Convener for the Lois Middlemiss Memorial Award, Judith Sutherland of the Christchurch Branch of the National Council of Women, says the aim of the award is to encourage secondary school girls to gain a better understanding of women’s issues.

“We want young women to take a topic and explore it from a personal perspective,” she says.

And that’s exactly what Bethany (Beth) Walters from Aranui High School and Amy Huang (Year 12) from Rangi Ruru Girls’ School did.

Bethany’s poem which received first prize is entitled “I Would Never Do This To You”. It is a thought provoking critique of the current political scene from her perspective.

Amy’s poem is entitled “Speech of the Female Candidate” and is a tongue in cheek address by a woman about what she will do when she becomes Prime Minister.

Ms Sutherland says the quality of entries was very high and encourages girls to start looking ahead to next year.

“Perhaps with pay parity so prevalent in the news at the moment and the Midwives pay parity case due to be heard in the High Court early next year, that may be an inspiration for some,” she says. “But of course anything that inspires our young women is welcome and encouraged.”

With Bethany and Amy, around twenty people including Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Christchurch City councillors Ali Jones and Pauline Cotter, gathered yesterday morning at the Kate Sheppard Memorial on Oxford Terrace (next to the old Municipal Chambers, Our City O-Tautahi) to acknowledge the 122nd anniversary of New Zealand women gaining the vote is known as Women’s Suffrage Day.

ENDS

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