Message from the Principal
This past Sunday, 8 March, marked International Women’s Day, a moment for reflection on the progress made, and the distance still to travel, toward genuine equality for women and girls. This year’s theme, “Balance the Scales,” resonated with research I have been conducting over the past several years as part of my PhD studies. I wanted to share some of what I have found, because it links directly to the kind of education we are committed to providing here at Meriden.
An Unexpected Gap
Australia has strong educational outcomes for women and girls. Women now make up the majority of university graduates, and by most measures of academic attainment, the gender gap has narrowed considerably. Yet, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, Australia ranks only 32nd in the world for women’s economic participation and opportunity. That gap, between strong educational outcomes and more limited progress in economic leadership, is precisely the puzzle my research has been trying to understand.
What the Research Found
My research followed the stories and experiences of women who had reached senior leadership positions across diverse industries in Australia: law, education, retail, finance, hospitality, business, and the not-for-profit sector. One finding stood out clearly: 84.3% of those women had been regular participants in school sport during their formative years.
When I explored why, the answer was more nuanced than simply “sport builds confidence.” School sport, particularly team sport delivered within an educational framework, was doing something quite specific. It was building adaptability: a comfort with uncertainty, the ability to respond under pressure, and the capacity to recover from setbacks and keep going. It was also developing a suite of transferable skills, including communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, strategic thinking, and collaborative problem-solving, that prove essential in professional life. The women I interviewed described sophisticated connections they hadn’t fully appreciated at the time: managing team dynamics in competition translated directly to navigating organisational complexity; receiving coaching feedback built their capacity for performance development conversations; coordinating team strategies developed their collaborative leadership style.
These are not incidental benefits. They are the building blocks of leadership, being practised intentionally every week on our courts, fields, and pools.
The Case for Single-Sex Education
My research also shed light on something that parents sometimes ask about: what difference does it make to attend an all-girls school?
The evidence is compelling. Research consistently demonstrates that girls in single-sex environments show greater academic confidence, higher rates of leadership aspiration, and significantly higher participation in sport. In coeducational settings, girls are frequently less likely to put their hands up, more likely to defer in group tasks, and more likely to absorb subtle messages that leadership is not quite meant for them. These dynamics are often invisible, but their cumulative effect over years of schooling is significant.
At Meriden, there is no gendered hierarchy to navigate. Every captain, every team leader, every student representative is a girl. Leadership is not something our students observe from a distance; it is something they practise as a matter of course. Every cocurricular opportunity, every sport program, every mentoring relationship is designed with them specifically in mind. They are not an afterthought in a system built for someone else.
The women I interviewed who had attended single-sex schools described something I found particularly striking: they arrived in the workforce genuinely surprised by some of the gendered dynamics they encountered, not because they were naive, but because they had spent their formative years in an environment that treated their leadership as entirely unremarkable. Of course girls lead. Of course girls compete seriously. Of course girls have something worth saying.
That expectation, quiet and deeply embedded, is one of the most valuable things an education can provide. And it is considerably harder to build once those formative years have passed.
What This Means for Your Daughter
Every time your daughter leads her team through a difficult match, picks herself up after a loss, or works through a disagreement with a teammate, she is practising something that will matter long after her playing days are over. Employers consistently identify communication, resilience, teamwork, and collaborative problem-solving as among the most valuable capabilities they see in graduates.
I encourage you to speak with your daughters about what they are learning through sport, not just the technical skills, but the leadership capacities. Ask them about how they handle a difficult team dynamic, how they respond to feedback from a coach, and how they pick themselves up after a loss. You may find that the conversation reveals more than you expect.
Aquatic Centre Update
Finally, I am delighted to share that Meriden has received planning approval for our new aquatic centre. We are now working with our architects on the detailed design plans and look forward to sharing further updates in the coming weeks, including a proposed start date for construction.