Category: IWD

  • Where did all the women go?

    I always feel reflective on International Women’s day. It’s a big day, it’s one week after my late mother’s birthday and a couple of weeks before Mother’s Day. All of these things feel connected. I find myself thinking about what I have done and what I have left undone to support the cause of women, […]

  • Inspiring the next generation of women in football

    When my daughter first started playing football at aged 4, she was the only girl, but she loved it.   She came up against some interesting resistance from the boys in her group. They would kick her ball away from her in training, tell her she shouldn’t be there because she was a girl. I sometimes […]

  • Being a working Mum

    I always remember my mum telling me that if people waited for the right time, where all the planets aligned, then hardly anyone would have children. I always knew I would have to work when I had kids and that was ok. I could make it work. At first, I worked round my husband’s shifts. […]

  • What makes an ‘excellent woman’?

    I recently watched an old episode of the IT Crowd, where Jen Barber and another female member of staff are competing for praise and validation from their boss Mr Reynham (played by Matt Berry, funniest voice on TV) who isn’t fit to be running a company, let alone appraising their professional competency. To Jen’s relief […]

  • Maude Stanley: a pioneer for young women

    Maude Stanley, like a lot of youth workers, had a lot on her plate. She couldn’t turn her back for fear the boys she worked with might burn the house down. And she often felt exasperated by the laziness of some of the young men who would rather play marbles than do the jobs she […]

  • Let’s support all girls to reach their potential

    When I was in secondary school in the ’80s, careers education involved a questionnaire which, if you were female, usually came to the conclusion that you were most suited to a secretarial or child-care role. If you were lucky, or as in my case unlucky enough to get some one-to-one advice from a careers teacher, […]

  • Champion Girls residential

    On 28th February, 100 girls, young women and youth workers came together at Hindleap Warren for London Youth’s Champion Girls residential. The Champion Girls residential was developed in collaboration with London Youth’s Sports Development team, Hindleap Warren and Woodrow High House and brought together ten members who have participated in our Champion Girls programme. Ahead […]

  • The power of language

    Growing up as a little girl and now as a 30 year old woman, I have often been described as having a ‘bubbly’ personality. Despite the fact this description has always come from a very positive place I have always secretly hated the word.  Although on the occasion when I have protested I have always […]

  • Better the balance, better the world

    International Women’s Day 2019 has a clear message that a more gender-balanced world is better for everyone: better for people, better for business, better for politics, better for sport, just…better. Since the day was launched in the early 1900s a lot has changed for the better. But not enough and not quickly enough. And we […]