Feminist to organise conference

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 6

Feminist to organise conference

A former nursing tutor who has been involved with the women’s movement for several years, Ms Hazel Irvine, has been appointed organiser of a conference of women in education to be held in Wellington in November. Ms Irvine was a commun-j ity development officer with] I the Wellington City Council [ I before taking up her new) i apnointment on August 1. Based in the Department! I of Education’s head office in 'Wellington, Ms Irvine will| •help plan the conference, ai • joint venture between the! department and the National! , Organising Committee on; International Women’s Year. I She will initiate pre-con-! Terence experiments, organ-[ iise the conference itself and| i compile a subsequent report, j Nuursing Though born in Scotland, I Ms Irvine, aged 27, received ! her schooling in Singapore i before coming to New ZeaI land with her parents in i 1963. Her family first lived jin Awhitu, near Waiuku, ! where Ms Irvine began ! working as a part-time ! nurse aid. After completing jher nursing training at •Waikato Hospital she travelled to Australia where- she ! worked in Sydney as an ‘industrial nurse, returning to i Wellington to complete her i midwifery training at St Helen’s Hospital. After tjitoring in nursing [at Wanganui General Hospital, Ms Irvine returned to I Wellington to study for a • degree at Victoria Univerjsity, where she read education, psychologv and socioI logy. Ms Irvine first became in- j volved with the women’s ! movement when she joined the women’s rights group, 1 Women in Health, and also I became active in the Vicj toria University feminist igroup. She has also been in- ’ volved in the Wellington (Women’s Workshop based at 1 the Aro Street Community I Centre and was organiser of Workshop 40 at the United Women’s Convention held in ; Wellington last June. She is interested in poli- ! tics and is secretary of the' Aro Street branch’ of the Labour Party. Changes The aims of the conferjence, which will be held! from November 23 to 27 are

to examine how girls and! women fare in all areas j from early childhood to con- i tinuing education, as pupils,! teachers and administrators;! to indicate what changes are! needed and how these! changes can be made, and to! identify administrative ac-[ tions and policies capable of! being implemented within a three to five-year period. Announcing the conference, the Minister for Education (Mr Amos), said there were many complex social, administrative and practical problems which concerned women in education. “Women have given evidence that there is still conisiderable disadvantage in I many ways, and at all levels jof education,’’ he said. More basic “In International Women’s [Year, and particularly at the [United Women’s Convention, [there has been a great deal of discussion on these issues. But we are now planning a conference which will settle down to identify changes which are necessary and desirable, and which should be implemented within the immediate future — say the next three to five years,” Mr Amos said. “There are many other matters which require; longer-term and more basic changes. Ourpurpose at this] stage, however, is to see. where we should be starting; to effect changes.” Mr Amos said a group from his department was working closely with the I.W.Y. committee, whose chairman Mrs Miriam Dell, would chair the conference. “I expect it to be. a conference with a difference because it will neither start nor finish with the sessions in November,” he said. Discussion Action groups were being assembled immediately to collect the necessary information, down to the level of individual schools and in-i stitutions if need be. “And after the conference, we will, be looking at some kind of system for monitoring progress on the proposals for immediate change which come from the conference.” | There had been a good j deal of discussion about • women in education and it [was now necessary to settle • down and plan a programme I of action, he said.