Assembly on International Women's Day

[Travelisfun]

I am a secondary school teacher, but I have never ran a meeting or assembly before. When I was at school I hated putting my hand up, and even now my heart beats so fast if I even have to speak in a meeting (pathetic, I know).
I have been asked to do the International Women's Day assembly this year. I agreed and am already so nervous.
Any ideas of what I can do? I am keen to get students involved. Helppppp.

How about the massive impact of Covid on girls education in many countries with massive increase in child brides and many not returning to education - or does it need to be upbeat?

I'd present several fantastic inspirational women. Use props, slides, music. Wear a costume. Getting students involved is a fab idea. Choose women of courage to inspire you!

Also, this book is bloody brilliant:

www.crownhouse.co.uk/butterflies-and-sweaty-palms

Honestly, I used to want to puke before I got up to speak. It really does get easier. Whatever you do, do not down a pint of wine beforehand. The first twenty seconds or so you are likely to feel nervous, then you will relax. I promise you. It's a great skill to learn. Courage calls to courage!

Also, part of you wants to speak. The fact that you're anxious just means you want to do it well. Use the anxious feelings to push you to make it good!

So - write/make your presentation. Work hard on it. Practise it loads. Try it out on friends and family. Record yourself. You'll be great.

@fabricstash good idea to includehow the past few years have affected issues such as those you have suggested.
@arabellascott thank you so much for your reply. Great idea to include music too, and thank you for your tips to ease my nerves, I will definitely check out that book!! It isn't until the end of February so a lot of time to practise.

I love the idea that celebrating IWD pushes you to do something courageous. Seems fitting.

Art from around the world? I remember the Soviet imagery celebrating the day being very striking.

A run through history with some fabulous women would be great like Hedy Lamarr, actress, inventor and spy. The night witches, all women bomber unit are an amazing story.

Women in mythology and folklore.

International traditional garbs and also famous artists, painters, sculptors, writers.

You could make a playlist on spotify of women artists throughout the decades and countries

Hello, we have this resource here which may help? Written by a secondary school teacher specifically for women's history month h last year.

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/03/08/womens-history-month-an-idea-for-school-assembly/

I have delivered an assembly on IWD myself. I had a slide on the projector as the students came in to the assembly room with some outdated UK laws that highlighted the historical lack of women's rights in the UK. I asked them to guess the country - they were surprised when I disclosed that it was UK from the past.

That's a great idea @Bromdad. It sometimes seems that young women think we've always had what we have now, they really don't seem to get how recent lots of it is.

I like to link things to generations of my family, so 'when my grandmother was born women couldn't do xyz' etc as it sees to have more impact than '150 years ago ..' or 'until 1883 ...'

A run through history with some fabulous women would be great like Hedy Lamarr, actress, inventor and spy. The night witches, all women bomber unit are an amazing story.

also the women who kept the steel works running in Sheffield (it's my hometown so i like to plug it)

Waterloo Bridge may be something to talk about.

Built during WWII by a predominantly female work force, its reportedly the only bridge in London ever finished on time and on budget. It's known locally as the 'Ladies Bridge'

www.wes.org.uk/content/ladies-bridge

You could include some of these women

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-75af095e-21f7-41b0-9c5f-a96a5e0615c1

Get the pupils involved . In out school the pupils often stand on the stage and pass the microphone along , this would take the pressure off you to speak lots .

Op, have you read Invisible Women by Caroline criado Perez? It's a fantastic book that everybody should read, not just women, but that has loads of examples as to how the way the world is set up disadvantages women...
Lots of examples, from women being significantly more likely to die or be seriously injured in car accidents because they don't use female crash test dummies (and countries won't change legislation do so and to make it safer for women), to the way medicine is practised based on 'typical symptoms' which for heart attacks means that the typical symptoms experienced by women aren't mentioned, so more women die, or for autism means that girls are much less likely to be diagnosed as their symptoms are not the same. Or unisex protective wear for police women is designed for a male shape, meaning it doesn't fit women very well (i.e. when it needs to fit someone with boobs), leaving them with gaps where they are more likely to get stabbed, which has sadly led to the death of some female police officers.
The list of examples is endless - you could make an interesting assembly by picking a few, or getting some students to pick the ones that shocked them the most - there's a lot of talk about how men and women can do the same things and are treated the same by society these days, that to be able to show some concrete examples of where they are not is really powerful and would hopefully get everyone thinking.

The book itself is obvious a fantastic resource, but she also does a weekly(ish) newsletter which has lots of other examples that might be easier to get pupils to lithograph, plus there have been a couple of good book reviews/articles from when IW was published that have some of the key examples in and again, much easier to read initially than the full book.
The newsletters often raise everyday issues that are annoying (rather than life threatening or harming) to many women - one of which is differences in pockets for men and women. Men's trouser pockets are usually big enough for a phone or their hands - women's pockets are rarely big enough for a phone even though many women would love to put their phone in their pocket. Picking up those sort of issues and doing quick polls (of students/staff/6th formers there) of those who have experienced the problems and what could be done about it could be interesting too.

Thank you so so much for all the replies, they are all so helpful!
@wibdib I will have a read, and great examples to use- I also read that car crashes are more severe for women as safety features are tested on men!!
@Bromdad a great idea! Something I will definitely look in to!!
My school have a band, I was thinking of getting an all girls band and playing an inspirational piece of music... has anyone got any ideas on any inspirational pieces? Thank you!

Glad to be of help op!
Google Women's Institute car cash safety and there are loads of fantastic resources as it was one of their campaigning issues - including a fab briefing paper that lays it out very clearly. There's also PowerPoint Slides and video clips plus research from other places.

My sons school ask them to find out about a family member and their contribution. A few students gave a couple of sentences about their family members who had impact on their family.

I liked the activity and the engagement of them filling in their personal history.

Last post, I promise, op!

One topic that might be really relevant to your audience is the way a lot of playgrounds are designed around the needs of boys. There's a great charity called Make Space for Girls that has funded research into what girls want and need from a play area, and how it is different from boys (who often end up with a big proportion of the space as they play games that take over large areas). Improving an area for girls, especially teen girls, will often make it better for everyone (including the non-sporty boys).
They have a website, plus Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc with lots of info on.

Could lead to a great assembly to get everyone to think about playground requirements and see if there is any way to improve the playground at your school for the girls!

All women bomber unit? Recently, I presume?

You could try Dame Ethel Smythe's 'March of the Women', the Suffragette song.