Celebrating the International Women’s Day in football and much more!

Celebrating the International Women’s Day in football and much more!

Today, March 8th, we celebrate the International Women’s Day! This international yearly occurance is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.

This year the United Nation and UN Women declared the theme for the International Women’s Day to be “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”.

The world is facing many crises, that can only be addressed by solutions that empower women. By investing in women, we can spark change and speed the transition towards a healthier, safer, and more equal world for all.

Investing in women and championing gender equality optimise a future where everyone in society can thrive, creating a world of boundless opportunity and empowerment for all.

The United Nation highlighted five key areas needing joint action, being:

• Investing in women, a human rights issue: Gender equality is the greatest human rights challenge.
• Ending poverty: Due to the COVID pandemic and conflicts, 75 million more people have fallen into severe poverty. Immediate action is crucial to prevent over 342 million women and girls living in poverty by 2030.
• Implementing gender-responsive financing: Conflicts and rising prices may lead 75% of countries to cut public spending by 2025, negatively impacting women and their essential services.
• Shifting to a green economy and care society: Advocates propose a shift to a green economy and care society to amplify women’s voices.
• Supporting feminist change-makers: Despite leading efforts, feminist organizations receive only 0.13% of official development assistance.

Football for the Goals: Goal of the Month

With International Women’s Day (IWD), this month the focus is on Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.

We all understand that gender equality is a human right and necessary for a peaceful and sustainable world, yet equality for women and girls is not even close to being achieved by 2030. At the current rate, it will take an estimated 300 years to end child marriage, 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, and 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace.

We all have a role, especially the world of football, in working together to dismantle systematic barriers to gender equality through strong political leadership and policy reforms.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel celebrates female spectators

As part of International Women’s Day, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, alongside its partners and the Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT clubs, is celebrating female spectators in stadiums by committing to the Her Game Too association.

Her Game Too’s mission is to raise awareness among the general public about the fight against sexism in the stands, in favor of greater inclusion in sport.

To support the campaign, the LFP and Her Game Too have produced an awareness film entitled “The Siege”, which features supporters of the Her Game Too association. The aim of this authentic film, which brings together female supporters, is to change attitudes and emphasise that women have just as much a place in the stands as men and to encourage them to take their place there.

ATHENA Project

ATHENA project, co-funded by the European Union, has the main aim to increase female participation in sport governance and administration and to present walking sports as a valuable health enhancing physical activity for elderly.

Learn more about ATHENA here.