Government hosts national conference on Women’s Sport

Sports Minister Helen Grant and Women in Sport, formerly the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, yesterday welcomed over 300 leading names from sport, politics and the media at a new national conference to create a shared vision for women’s sport. The brainchild of Helen Grant Transforming Sport: The Women’s Sport Conference will celebrate the progress made on women’s sport in the last year while exploring what more can be done to keep up the momentum and address remaining challenges still facing women and girls in sport across the UK.

As well as Helen Grant and Women in Sport chief executive Ruth Holdaway, speakers included British Fed Cup Team Captain Judy Murray, 2013 Wimbledon Singles Champion Marion Bartoli, BBC Director of Sport Barbara Slater, England Rugby 2015 Chief Executive Debbie Jevans, Sport England chief executive Jennie Price, UK Sport chief executive Liz Nicholl and RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie.

Yesterday the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Women and Sport Advisory Board has also published its interim report, giving a snapshot on the progress made on women’s sport since its inception in September 2013 in the five areas that government are keen to make progress on.

These are:

• increasing women’s participation in sport,
• improving the media profile of women’s sport,
• increasing commercial investment in women’s sport,
• improving women’s representation in sports leadership positions and the workforce,
• encouraging greater recognition for women’s sporting achievements.

Sports Minister Helen Grant said, "we have made good progress in 12 months raising the profile of women’s sport, helped by some amazing performances by our top female athletes. Media coverage is on the rise and businesses are coming on board with sponsorship deals and more women are taking up leadership positions in sport. But there is still more to do on all these fronts to continue to improve the gender balance in sport. This conference will explore ways in which we can do that, with a fantastic line-up of speakers to help shape the future of women’s sport."

Click here to download the interim report from the Women in Sport Advisory Board.