Empowering Bristol’s young women 

On Monday, over 80 Year 8 students from schools across Bristol took part in a conference organised by the Bristol Women’s Commission.  

The commission works to address inequalities in work, public, social or family life for women and wants to ensure that the experience, know-how, skills and creativity of women in Bristol are taken into account. 

The specific object of the day was to bring girls from across the city together to learn about issues which may impact them.  

In small, mixed-school groups the students worked with specialists in a number of fields including e-safety, communications and friendships and safety on the streets. The girls were also taught CPR by the qualified nurses based at Redmaids’ High School. Overall, it proved to be a fast-paced and highly-interactive day. 

One of the workshops involved looking at celebrity ‘role models’. The girls were asked to consider who they admire and why, what values they may actually share with any one particular celebrity and how much they are influenced by the media. 

Speaking after the event, Evie said, “At the beginning our group was quite shy and quiet but by the end everyone was very chatty and sociable. Overall it was a very enjoyable day.”

Sydney said, “The conference was really fun. I particularly enjoyed the workshop about staying safe on the streets which taught us some basic self-defence skills. I really enjoyed mixing with the girls from the other schools.”