Round Square Postcard

By Freya Alblas, Year 11 and Tia Priest-Willimott, Year 12

Round Square conferences are so much more than just lectures! They are a chance to meet with students from across the world and discuss a topic that everyone feels passionate about.

We participated in a Round Square postcard called “Breaking the Bias”, which focused on problems about gender bias and stigma. There were around 100 participants who joined the call, hosted by MLC School in Sydney.

To start, we watched two videos, one made by a teacher and one by a graduate of MLC, as they talked about their vastly different experiences of working in male-dominated fields: science and construction. This was interesting as their experiences varied immensely. After this we were put into breakout rooms to discuss the issues of gender bias and stigma with a range of students, by responding to questions posed by the student organisers.

We thoroughly enjoyed getting the chance to speak in our breakout room, as we shared our own experiences with gender bias, such as how and why it happens, how it can be fixed and what role schools and families have in regulating it. It was eye-opening to see the different points of view of some of the other students. We heard from students who had different cultural attitudes, and as such, saw how gender bias in their country varies from ours in Australia. This served as a reminder of how different countries and cultural attitudes can influence society in so many extremely different ways, while also guiding us to see the issues differently from how we originally perceived them.

We really enjoyed participating in both the discussion and process of this virtual postcard. We highly recommend participating in further Round Square opportunities as they become available throughout the year.