Advocating Girls

Advocating Girls is two things. It is the name of tonight’s event: bringing together 90 students from 6 partner schools and professionals from across the court and justice systems. Tonight is about making connections and sharing perspectives. We’re here to celebrate 100 years of women in advocacy, think about issues facing women in the justice system today, and turn our minds to the future - as represented by the young people here tonight. How do we meet the continuing challenges as we strive for fairness and equality both under and within the law?

Advocating Girls sees three pairs of schools coming together in partnership:

- City of London School for Girls and City of London Academy Highgate Hill;
- The Abbey School Reading and The Holt School Wokingham;
- Wimbledon High School and Harris Academy Wimbledon.

All of us are committed to working together to share opportunity and experiences for students in each of our individual schools. We learn best alongside and from each other - and that is how we meet the challenges of the present and the future.

Advocating Girls, though, is also a campaign, for which tonight’s event serves as the launch. As Heads we lead a coalition of schools with the rights and interests of girls and women as our core purpose. We need a justice system that understands and defends those interests as part of meaningful equality. Our goal is to bring together school students and professionals to work towards that end.

 Women have been permitted to serve as advocates in law for just over a century. As we look to the coming decades, we are united in our desire to support girls as they continue to advocate for justice in their own cause and justice for all.