Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News 
By Katie Simmonds, Chair, SIGA Ladies Council
March 8 – Right here we go… once more! At this time we’re celebrating Worldwide Ladies’s Day 2025, and it’s time to shine a highlight on our journey to reaching 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 sluggish, and there may be typically a scarcity 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 high desk?
The Gold Customary is gender fairness on the board of sports activities organisations worldwide, but we all know we’re far off from reaching this, with many sports activities organisations fortunate to have one solely lonely girl of their decision-making constructions.
Certainly, since 2019, SIGA has carried out an unbiased, annual analysis into the share of girls’s illustration within the highest govt organs of the 32 worldwide federations recognised by the Worldwide Olympics Committee (IOC) and thus far, we’ve got 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 overall.
Nonetheless, while this paints a bleak snapshot of the place we’re, it’s progress from earlier years. Final yr, 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 is not only 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 staff – 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 international locations’ feminine athletes reaching extra medals than males together with america, 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 consequence of decreased viewership leading to decrease media rights offers. Ladies’s sport and feminine management in sport will not be a charity – and so forth the eve of IWD2025, regardless of the progress, we have to maintain our foot on the gasoline 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 worldwide 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 concept of being a poster lady for gender fairness in sport as I had skilled firsthand how robust it’s to be accepted in 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 accomplice of a renown sports activities legislation agency asking me at interview, what had been the disadvantages of being feminine? Fairly just a few it appeared! Why did I need to lead a gaggle of girls, when typically, in my expertise, girls had been the issue, gatekeeping entry, preferring to keep up their privilege of being one of many few?
By way of our mentorship programme, I realised quick that I used to be not alone in going through these challenges. I additionally noticed, first hand, the facility 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.
To this point SIGAWomen has delivered mentorship to +300 girls worldwide, making a protected place to handle matters which might be robust to lift internally and arming mentees with all of the sensible solutions, we want we’d have mentioned, however typically couldn’t discover our voice.
Final yr we related 150 girls from 32 international locations and this yr we’re doubling the influence to 300 girls from +50 international locations with plans to extend this to 1000 in 2026. This yr I’ve “pace dated” over 150 girls from 45 international locations to affix 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 completely different on a continental foundation and but regardless of our completely different prisms, we’re united by the assumption that extra work must be finished to assist 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 relatively than compete in opposition to one another. I’m assured and optimistic, that we will enhance the variety of feminine leaders – supplied we’ve got allies, sponsors and lift one another up – not simply on Worldwide Ladies’s Day – however every single day.
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 Trade. She might be contacted at moc.t1741677921rops-1741677921agis@1741677921sdnom1741677921mis.e1741677921itak1741677921
