Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News 
By Katie Simmonds, Chair, SIGA Ladies Council
March 8 – Right here we go… once more! Right now we’re celebrating Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2025, and it’s time to shine a highlight on our journey to attaining gender fairness in sport. Stifle a yawn.
In actuality – what has modified within the final 12 months to tangibly make a distinction? How can we contribute to shaping a future that’s higher for younger girls with extra alternatives to thrive when the tempo of change is gradual, and there’s typically an absence of political will to instigate governance reform which might imply males stepping apart and giving girls geared up with matching experience a spot on the prime desk?
The Gold Commonplace is gender fairness on the board of sports activities organisations worldwide, but we all know we’re far off from attaining this, with many sports activities organisations fortunate to have one solely lonely girl of their decision-making buildings.
Certainly, since 2019, SIGA has performed an impartial, annual analysis into the share of ladies’s illustration within the highest govt organs of the 32 worldwide federations recognised by the Worldwide Olympics Committee (IOC) and thus far, we’ve but to attain 30%. In 2024, out of the 206 IOC member Nationwide Olympic Committees (NOCs), there have been solely 24 NOCs that had been presided by girls, representing a mere 11.65 % of the entire.
Nevertheless, while this paints a bleak snapshot of the place we’re, it’s progress from earlier years. Final 12 months, UEFA modified its statutes to double the variety of girls in its Government Committee – from one to 2 – and there are an rising variety of initiatives worldwide, Ladies in Sport (UK), Ladies’s Sports activities Basis (US) and Play By the Guidelines (Australia), to get extra girls represented on the boards of sports activities organisations and empower ladies utilizing sport as a device.
Towards this backdrop, girls’s sport isn’t just having a second – an expression I detest – however is breaking data with unprecedented attendance figures in girls soccer matches, with stadiums reaching +80,000 capability – suppose Arsenal FC girls’s group – and extra feminine traders approaching board – Michele Kang, Renee Montgomery, and naturally the high-profile girls supporting Angels Metropolis FC.
Final Summer time’s Paris 2024 was the primary Olympic Video games in historical past the place the identical variety of girls had been capable of compete as males, with many nations’ feminine athletes attaining extra medals than males together with the US, China, Australia, Netherlands and South Korea.
Sponsorships for girls’s sport are additionally on the rise though the age-old hen and egg conundrum stays, with much less cash invested within the males’s equal as a result of decreased viewership leading to decrease media rights offers. Ladies’s sport and feminine management in sport shouldn’t be a charity – and so forth the eve of IWD2025, regardless of the progress, we have to maintain our foot on the fuel to drive change and subvert this narrative.
So, what can we as people do?
Seven years in the past, SIGA’s World CEO, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros challenged me to arrange a world mentorship programme for aspiring feminine leaders within the sports activities trade to implement our good governance reform. Initially, I admit, I wasn’t enamoured with the thought of being a poster woman for gender fairness in sport as I had skilled firsthand how powerful it’s to be accepted on your credentials as a feminine sports activities lawyer and was used to being the one girl within the room.
Why did I need to spotlight my gender when this had been a barrier with one male companion of a renown sports activities regulation agency asking me at interview, what had been the disadvantages of being feminine? Fairly a couple of it appeared! Why did I need to lead a bunch of ladies, when typically, in my expertise, girls had been the issue, gatekeeping entry, preferring to take care of their privilege of being one of many few?
By our mentorship programme, I realised quick that I used to be not alone in dealing with these challenges. I additionally noticed, first hand, the ability of storytelling – to teach, encourage and unite a brand new technology of leaders – sure not feminine leaders – let’s drop the gender – leaders and revitalise and innovate the fast-paced sports activities panorama.
Up to now SIGAWomen has delivered mentorship to +300 girls worldwide, making a protected place to handle subjects which can be powerful to lift internally and arming mentees with all of the good solutions, we want we might have stated, however typically couldn’t discover our voice.
Final 12 months we related 150 girls from 32 nations and this 12 months we’re doubling the affect to 300 girls from +50 nations with plans to extend this to 1000 in 2026. This 12 months I’ve “pace dated” over 150 girls from 45 nations to hitch the SIGAWomen motion to slender the gender hole on the board of sports activities organisations worldwide.
What I’ve learnt is that gender fairness is totally different on a continental foundation and but regardless of our totally different prisms, we’re united by the assumption that extra work must be finished to help aspiring girls and equip them with the arrogance and experience to know their worth and embark on a management journey.
That is what drives me to proceed constructing this group of like-minded girls in sports activities that need to assist each other slightly than compete towards one another. I’m assured and optimistic, that we are able to enhance the variety of feminine leaders – supplied we’ve allies, sponsors and lift one another up – not simply on Worldwide Ladies’s Day – however on daily basis.
PS: Click on right here to be taught extra in regards to the SIGAWomen World Mentorship Programme
A specialist sports activities lawyer by commerce, Katie Simmonds created and leads the SIGAWomen World Mentorship Programme for Feminine Leaders within the Sports activities Business. She may be contacted at moc.t1741408670rops-1741408670agis@1741408670sdnom1741408670mis.e1741408670itak1741408670
