WOMEN\u2019S Health Loddon Mallee held a community breakfast to celebrate International Women\u2019s Day on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
A consistent theme across speakers and those in attendance was womens’ relationship with failure.<\/p>\n
Speakers included Dr Skye Kinder who featured on Forbes 30 Under 30\u2019s Asia Social Impact list in 2021 and 2019 VIC Young Australian of the Year, and Alissa Van Soest, General Manager at Discovery Science and Technology Centre.<\/p>\n
Dr Kinder grew up in Bendigo and said she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important, and this sounds a little bit corny, but to believe in yourself, because sometimes nobody else will believe in you and you have to back yourself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, when a door closes you just climb through the window, you don\u2019t wait for another door to open, you break your way in to where you need to get to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019ve discovered as part of my journey, if the door\u2019s closed, I\u2019ll just smash the window in and climb through that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
A strong advocate for science, technology engineering and maths education, or STEM, Ms Van Soest said that 75 per cent of future jobs were going to need those skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day we have students come into the centre; I say to them today we\u2019re going to fail, we\u2019re going to fail many, many times; because every time we fail, we have a new opportunity to find a new answer, a new solution, a new way of doing things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to not shy away from failure, we need to embrace it and find it as an opportunity to find new solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have people come to the centre, and with the best intentions, they say it\u2019s great to have a space for boys, it\u2019s good to see the boys having fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has nothing to do with gender, all children are curious\u2026but over time we are asked to squash that curiosity, don\u2019t ask too many questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need to work together, to make change, to solve those massive problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sammy Bourden works at Centre for Non-Violence and said there\u2019s a prevailing idea in society, still, that, \u201cIf you do fail, you\u2019re no good at it, you should just walk away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas with our male counterparts it\u2019s like you fail, you pick up, you keep going,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely that gender imbalance when it comes to failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as women we\u2019re also our worst enemies, so we take failure very, very personally, and I think we just need to own it because that\u2019s how you learn and that\u2019s how you grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WOMEN\u2019S Health Loddon Mallee held a community breakfast to celebrate International Women\u2019s Day on Wednesday. A consistent theme across speakers and those in attendance was womens’ relationship with failure. Speakers included Dr Skye Kinder who featured on Forbes 30 Under 30\u2019s Asia Social Impact list in 2021 and 2019 VIC Young Australian of the Year, […]<\/p>\n