Celebrating International Women’s Day at The Coaching Academy

As coaches (an industry with more women than men), we should perhaps think about this for a moment. If you are reading this article and are female, less than fifty years ago, you wouldn't have been able to open a bank account for yourself. This only changed when the Sex Discrimination Act was brought in, and financial institutions had to treat women equally to men. In reality, it was still very difficult at the time for women to secure loans or mortgages as their earnings were generally much lower than men’s.   I look around at all the business-minded, laser-focused female coaches that pass through The Coaching Academy each year, and I wonder what opportunities they and I would have had and if we would have challenged the bias against us – I’d like to think we would.

On 8th March, we are hosting a giveaway on our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn channels where we will give away a bundle of books by inspiring female authors. If you're not already following us, then make sure that you are for a chance to win this prize. Just click the links below to find us:

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Last year was iconic for women's football in the UK when the Lionesses won the Women's Euros. What particularly impressed me about their win (as well as their legendary skills) was their acknowledgement of the contribution of the female footballers who had come before them. These little-known elite athletes had carried on playing, training and dedicating themselves to their sport despite the lacklustre official recognition and funding they so desperately needed.

One of the earliest players I read about was Lily Parr, who joined one of the most successful teams at the time: the Dick Kerr Ladies factory team in 1919 at age 15. During the First World War there was a growing interest in women's football, with one Boxing Day game drawing around 46,000 spectators. Many of the young men had been conscripted to fight in the war, so people turned to women's football to get their fix.

Lily is known as one of the best players of her generation and would regularly play against male teams as well as female ones. But when the First World War ended, The Football Association ruled that football was 'unsuitable' for women as they wanted spectators to return to the men's game. As a result, Lily and other women players were no longer allowed to play on official grounds in the UK. So, what did they do? They pioneered international football and travelled to America and France to play games against teams there, including men's teams. Lily scored over 100 goals in her career and  became the first women to be  inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame in 2002. 2019 the a statue was revealed in her honour.

Another fact that might floor you is that the Football Association's ban on women's football lasted for 51 years and wasn't lifted until 1971. All those years without proper funding or training took their toll on women's football in the UK, and it is only in recent years that players are paid enough not to need a full-time job as well. I will be one of the millions who will be eagerly following their progress this year in the Women’s World Cup.

This year on International Women's Day, as coaches and businesspeople, I hope you can take inspiration from Lily Parr and her contemporaries and not only celebrate the achievements of the women around us but the ones that paved the way as well.  

Bev and The Coaching Academy Team

PS: This month, bestselling author Sabrina Cohen-Hatton will be releasing her book, The Gender Bias. Watch the video she has made for The Coaching Academy with her thoughts on International Women’s Day here.