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Women in Football was the official media partner to a high-profile international conference last week which brought influential speakers and delegates together in London to discuss ways of supporting women in sport.

Raising Women's Sport and Leadership was hosted at Google’s prestigious UK HQ at Kings Cross and created by the visionary team at Interact, a female-founded social impact and marketing agency.

RAISE was launched to help drive women’s sport in multiple areas, with the aim of advancing opportunities for girls and women playing sport, while also offering support to women in sport leadership positions.

Taking place on 18 and 19 September, the conference featured in-depth discussion, case studies, interviews and panels from a host of big names in sport. These included Women in Football director Lisa Parfitt and members such as Victoire Cogevina Reynal, co-founder and co-CEO of Mercury/13; and Charlotte O'Neill, Managing Director at Manchester City Women.

Session topics included the power and potential of women’s football, the unique opportunity to do things differently, growing media coverage and visibility and many more engaging topics. You can find the full conference agenda on the RAISE website.

 

Feeling empowered

Lisa Parfitt – co-founder of The Space Between agency as well as a WIF director – was part of a panel on Women in Sport Leadership alongside Charlotte Samuelson and Julie-Ann Hall. Brilliantly hosted by Helen Soulsby, the session played host to some very honest discussion surrounding areas such as EDI.

Lisa spoke on Women in Football’s Open Doors Agenda, a proposed framework for changes to governance and safeguarding which would ensure that women working in the game, on and off the pitch, feel safe, welcome and supported.

The panel session received wonderful feedback from those in attendance, who described it as “a wonderfully raw and authentic panel” and “such a frank, honest and helpful conversation about the reality of female leaders in sport”. One of Lisa’s personal highlights was a comment from an attendee which was too good for us not to share: “I feel so empowered my employers need to watch out!”

The power of the Women in Football network was on full display too, in the form of four women who’d attended individually via tickets from Women in Football, all because they didn’t think their employers would cover the cost of entry. They’d never met before but left bonded and empowered – their shared spirit and intent was infectious.

It’s easy to tire of conferences and panels but RAISE really served a purpose and created something very special for those who were there.

 

 

The challenge

Women’s sport has made remarkable progress, but there is still a long way to go. Figures from the recent Women in Football 2024 survey show that a mere 64% of their female members believe the football sector is one where they can excel – and stats from RAISE reflect the same disappointing story when it comes to female participation in sport.

They found that 45% of men play sport at least once a week compared to 37% of women, while even more worrying is the discovery that 84% of adolescent girls globally don't get enough physical activity. Looking at professional sport, they also found 10 out of 35 sports that attribute prize money do not pay the same amount to sportswomen and sportsmen.

These stats highlight the need for RAISE's mission, which calls for real talk and real change for women in sport. 

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