Category Archives: Gender

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – August 2023

On 20 August it is the final of the Women’s Football World Cup and with that in mind we have chosen Sue Campbell as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Sue is the Football Associations Director of Women’s Football who has a long history of sports administration. She was educated at Long Eaton Grammar School, Bedford College of Physical Education, and the University of Leicester where she obtained a Master of Education degree. She worked as a PE teacher in the early 1970s, before becoming deputy director of Physical Education at Leicester University in 1972 and a lecturer in the Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Loughborough University from 1976.

In 1980, Sue was appointed regional officer for the East Midlands by the Sports Council of Great Britain. She was deputy chief executive of the National Coaching Foundation for one year in 1984, before becoming its chief executive for a decade, 1985 to 1995. She became chief executive of the Youth Sport Trust in 1995, having played a key role in setting it up and from 2000 -2003 she was an adviser to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education and Skills. 

In 2003 Sue was appointed as the Chair of UK Sport, she held this position until April 2013, presiding over Team GB and Paralympic GB’s performance at the London 2012 games. Sue became Chair of the Youth Sport Trust in 2005, stepping down in December 2017.

On 10 November 2008 she was, created Baroness Campbell of Loughborough, of Loughborough in the County of Leicestershire. She sits on the crossbenches of the House of Lords and she chose to make her maiden speech on the subject of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sue was appointed Head of Women’s Football with The Football Association in March 2016, and became Director of Women’s Football in January 2018.

In 1991 Sue was awarded an MBE and CBE in the same year.  She was appointed Dame in 2020 for services to sport.

In February 2013 she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.

To find out more about Sue see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Campbell,_Baroness_Campbell_of_Loughborough To find out more about the World Cup see here https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023

Hannah Dingley: Forest Green Rovers name first female boss of a men’s professional football side

Forest Green Rovers have named Hannah Dingley as their new caretaker boss, making her the first woman to manage a professional men’s team in English football.

The League Two side sacked Duncan Ferguson on Tuesday after just six months in charge.

Forest Green announced Dingley, the club’s academy head, would be put in caretaker charge of the first team.

Her first match in charge will be a friendly at Melksham Town on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old said: “I’m really excited for this next step of my career. Pre-season has just begun, and the full season kicks off very soon. More

England Cricketers become First LGBT Couple to read CBeebies Bedtime Story

England cricketers  Nat and Katherine Sciver-Brunt will become the first LGBT couple to feature on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, as part of Pride month.

The couple, who married last year, will read Emily Coxhead’s Find Your Happy, about a sloth learning to navigate their emotions.

Abtaha Maqsood, Britain’s first Hijab-wearing cricketer, will read a story to mark July’s South Asian Heritage Month.

The stories are being filmed from Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. More

FA Cup final caps record-breaking year for women’s football

A new world record has been set for a women’s domestic match after 77,390 fans watched Chelsea beat Manchester United in Sunday’s FA Cup final at Wembley.

Sam Kerr’s second half strike sealed a 1-0 win for Chelsea and bagged the Blues a third successive Women’s FA Cup title.

Women’s football has witnessed major changes across Europe over the past 14 months, with a 23-year-old world record finally broken, big stadiums selling out and attendance levels continuing to grow.

Sunday’s FA Cup final capped an extraordinary year for the women’s game in England, with the showpiece selling out for the first time. Cont

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – March 2023

International Women’s Day is on 8 March and with that in mind we have chosen Emma Hayes the Manager of Chelsea Women FC as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

When injury halted her playing career at an early age she decided to study at Liverpool Hope College studying European Studies, Spanish and Sociology and then took a master degree in Intelligence and International Affairs.

Her first football coaching role as at Long Island Lady Riders in the USA and in 2006 she was part of the coaching staff at Arsenal Ladies during their very successful period where they won 11 trophies.  She returned to the USA to coach in 2008 holding managerial positions in the Women’s Professional League including Chicago Red Stars.

In 2011 she returned to the and became the manager of Chelsea Women FC in 2012 replacing Matt Beard making her the only female manager in the league at that time.

Her time at Chelsea has been and continues to be extremely successful.  Under her management the team has won the WSL 5 times, the FA Cup 4 times, the league cup twice, Community Shield once and were runners up in the Champions League in 2020 being the first female manager to reach the final for 12 years.

Emma has been the Manager of the Season 3 times and was named FIFA Best Women’s Coach in 2022.

In 2016 Emma was awarded an MBE and in 2022 she was awarded an OBE for services to football.

To find out more about Emma see here https://www.chelseafc.com/en/teams/profile/emma-hayes

To find out more about International Women’s Day see here

https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Sabina Nessa: Group marks anniversary of teacher’s murder

One year ago, on 17 September 2021, Sabina Nessa walked through a park to meet a friend for an evening drink.

She was 28 and a primary school teacher. She did not arrive. Her body was found the following evening.

A year later, the fear of being murdered by a stranger has led to one group campaigning for change.

Those in the group did not know Ms Nessa. Or Shadika Patel or Maria Rawlings , or Sarah Everard, or sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

But they do know what it is to be a woman. More

‘Inclusive Barbies are a major step in my life’

“It’s a major step in the toy industry and in my life. It made me feel proud of who I was.”

James Stewart is among those celebrating the new Barbie dolls that are being released today.

Mattel, the company that makes them, has released a range of more diverse dolls.

For the first time, Barbie is seen with a hearing aid, a prosthetic limb and a wheelchair, while a Ken doll has the skin condition vitiligo.

James, who has the skin condition, says it “felt quite surreal” to hold. More

Save Venice: The forgotten female artists being rediscovered

Who decides which artists are remembered and which are forgotten? With only a small fraction of the art in museums by women, efforts are being made, at the Venice Biennale and further afield, to change long-standing narratives.

Inside the Church of San Marziale, beside a canal in central Venice, specialist art handlers are high up on scaffolding above one of the church’s second altars, trying to tease out two canvases that have been nailed to the wall of the church for several hundred years.

The paintings, which are believed to date from the late 1720s or early 1730s, are by a woman artist called Giulia Lama. She may have been the first female artist in Venice to produce major commissions for churches. The daughter of an artist, she never married and was a mathematician and a published poet.

At the time she was dismissed by some of her male contemporaries. So much so that in 1728, an abbot and man of science, Antonio Conti, wrote: “The poor girl is persecuted by painters, but her virtues triumph over her enemies.”

According to some reports, the other artists and critics at the time focused on what they decided were her unremarkable, almost unappealing physical attributes – they asked how a woman of such prosaic appearance could produce such sophisticated paintings. More

Jacky Hunt-Broersma: The cancer survivor who ran 104 marathons in 104 days

A woman who took up running after she lost her left leg to cancer has passed the Guinness World Record for most consecutive marathons.

Jacky Hunt-Broersma, 46, has run 26.2-miles every day since mid-January, normally taking around five hours.

On Saturday, she completed her 104th consecutive marathon in as many days – an achievement she expects to be certified by Guinness World Records.

A spokesperson said certifying the record would take around three months.

Waking up on Sunday – a day off at long last – was a bizarre experience for Jacky.

“Part of me was really happy to be done,” she tells the BBC from her home in Arizona. “And the other part kept thinking I need to go running.”

Her body is also recovering from the record-chasing effort, despite having stopped. “I feel tighter than I have the whole 104 marathons,” she admits.

But Jacky – who was born and raised in South Africa, and has also lived in England and the Netherlands – is grateful. Because running has given her the confidence she was afraid she would never regain. More

Winter Olympics: Beijing 2022 will have lowest-ever gender gap

The Beijing Winter Olympics will be the most gender-equal Games ever, data experts say.

Gracenote says the proportion of events in which women can compete will increase for the 11th successive Games – with 52.75% of events for men and 47.25% for women.

Women will have nearly four times as many events to participate in as they did in 1980.

The Games take place from 4-20 February.

The first Games in Chamonix, France in 1924 had only two events which women could participate – the figure skating mixed pairs competition and the ladies’ singles – but 14 events for men, and had a gender gap of 81.3%.

That gap has now declined to 5.5% for Beijing, with 12 of the 15 sports now gender-equal. Nordic combined is the only remaining sport with no female participation.