Miriam Gonzalez, founder of the Inspiring Women campaign, talks about the power of sportswomen and women working in the sector to inspire the next generation of girls.
I am delighted that the Inspiring Women Campaign and the Sport and Recreation Alliance are working together in the ‘Women in Sport Week’ towards exposing young girls to all the different roles they can have in the field and encouraging them to pursue a career in sports if that is what they wish.
In sports – like in many other sectors – women are underrepresented at senior levels. This will only change by showing to girls that they have as many options as boys, so that they can develop a fulfilling and rewarding career in sports.
That is what we are trying do through the Inspiring Women Campaign that I launched 18 months ago. I am simply overwhelmed by the response from girls, women and teachers to the campaign. The simplicity of our message (just one hour per year to go back to school to talk to the girls) is what explains its success. But its success is also due to the fact there is a clear need to fill the gap between what young girls ‘think’ they can aspire to and what they actually ‘could’ aspire to.
Our aim is to expose young girls to all the different roles that women have – whether in sports, in finance, in fashion or in politics - because it is easier for them to dream of becoming something when they have actually seen it.
It is not for us to make judgements on the girls’ choices, or to try to guide them in any particular direction. We just want to show them the amazing range of possibilities they have within their reach. And we are doing it by giving to the girls thousands of women from different backgrounds who – not so long ago – were girls themselves. We also want to inspire the girls to aim high, to work hard and make an effort, no matter what they choose to do in their lives.
Since October 2013, we have crossed the country, from Glasgow to Brighton, from Manchester to Essex... we have organised events with women in the RAF, in Medicine, in Finance, in The Royal Navy, in Manufacturing, Technology and in the Arts. It has been hard work, but it has also been tremendous fun!
We are now proud to have over 16,000 women volunteers, from CEOs to apprentices, women from all walks of life, and to have reached more than a quarter of a million girls from state schools across the UK.
Official bodies, public institutions and the main companies in the country have backed the Inspiring Women Campaign. And we also have ten countries interested in mirroring us to take the campaign abroad.
Our aim, however, is to make sure first and foremost that every single girl in a state school in the UK has access to all the amazing volunteers who have signed up to the campaign and are willing to talk to them.
We are calling all our volunteers in sports to get out there during the ‘Women in Sport Week’ and talk to the next generation of girls: just talk about your life, your options, your challenges, your fears, your successes… show them that if you could do it, they can do it too.
And if you haven’t signed up yet to the Inspiring Women Campaign, please go to www.inspiringwomencampaign.org or send me an email to Miriam.inspiringwomen@gmail.com and I will respond directly to you. Registering takes just five minutes and, believe me, it is so worth it!
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