EFDN members celebrating International Women’s Day 2019
In August 1996, as part of the National Women’s Day in South Africa, Nelson Mandela stated: ”As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance. As long as outmoded ways of thinking prevent women from making a meaningful contribution to society, progress will be slow. As long as the nation refuses to acknowledge the equal role of more than half of itself, it is doomed to failure.”
Despite all of the progress that has been made, we must recognise that there is still a long way to go towards achieving one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: gender equality. Today we are celebrating the International Women’s Day which is a reminder to all that gender equality is still one of the biggest challenges in our world. This day is a call for change but also a celebration of actions all over the world promoting women and girls empowerment.
At EFDN, we believe sport is a powerful platform for advocacy and raising awareness for gender equality. It can help with abolishing all forms of discrimination against women and girls. The human rights based rules of sport can help to replace culturally discriminative norms that exclude women and girls from taking part, while sports programmes can also increase self-esteem and confidence of women and girls, empower them and help them develop skills needed to become equal participants and leaders in their communities.
We are proud to showcase some of our members actions on this special day below:
FC Barcelona
To coincide with International Women’s Day, FC Barcelona launched an inspiring campaign called ”Football is for footballers” and a new video using the hashtag #Igualdad to highlight its commitment to women’s sport and gender equality.
Juventus FC
To celebrate the occasion, Juventus FC invited some of their women’s team players to speak about their love for the game and what football represents to them.
Athletic Bilbao
Athletic Club gathered women together in a beautiful video who represent courage and strength in their respective fields as partners, footballers, technicians, employees of the club.
Everton FC
Everton FC also celebrated the day by launching a powerful video on what it’s like to be a modern woman.
Celtic FC
To celebrate the International Women’s Day, Celtic FC launched a brand new website for their women’s team. Eddie Wolecki Black, manager of Celtic FC Women’s team says: ”Celtic Football Club are committed to women’s football and in developing the team further. This is something I’m delighted to be part of, at one of the world’s great football clubs.”
Brentford FC
To mark this day, Brentford FC hosted an evening to celebrate the increasing role and involvement of women in football. The event provided a platform to discuss the ongoing strategy to make the club as welcoming to female fans as possible.
Chelsea FC
Chelsea FC Foundation have have had a week long celebration with a host of activities taking place at Stamford Bridge and Cobham. Sunday’s game against Wolves is dedicated to Plan International as part of the celebrations while on Tuesday a host of schools joined Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and Chelsea Women’s team player Hannah Blundell for a girls’ football tournament in Cobham. Through their programs like ”Boosting Women and Girls’ Football”, Chelsea FC is actively engaged in making football accessible to women and girls.
Aston Villa FC
In 2013, Aston Villa Foundation became part of the Premier League Girls Football, a programme which is run jointly by the Premier League, Sport England, The FA and Football League Trust to encourage more females to play football. The sessions have been delivered by 87 clubs from the Premier League and Football League and saw more than 20,000 females playing football in the first year.
