Chichester College student aims to inspire with magazine article

An ambitious Chichester College student is aiming to make a difference after having her first article published in a religious magazine.

Molly McKnight had her story published in RE Today’s Spring edition after being inspired to write about female inequality within society at school.

The 17-year-old English language, religious studies and sociology student became inspired while learning RS in secondary school, while becoming aware of ‘sexist stereotypes and ways women can be portrayed through academic fields’.

She said: “I became a little concerned in my GCSE and A-levels when I studied religion. A lot of scholars we studied would be males, and I felt there wasn’t any female representations, so I wanted to look into female inequality and religion and that became a big passion for me.

“Then I started A-levels and did English language and became aware of the lexical and semantic processes behind words, but then that made me want to analyse religious discourses and think about how religion contributes to inequality.”

Molly aims to build an equal society through the teachings of religion, while cutting down on female oppression and sexism. She added: “If someone does have a sexist attitude, we should challenge instead of criticise to see where it’s coming from then tackle the underlying causes.

“The story I wrote in RE Today is about how religion can be a means of social progression in terms of equality. I think there’s a lot of beauty in religion in terms of how it can unite people and how our society ticks along nicely. The article talks about how we can remove sexism and progress with society.”

Molly aims to continue writing and talking about inequality while getting ready for university.