Next Friday, we’ll be hosting our International Women's Day Lunch 2025, and we’re envisioning what’s possible with our theme “Step into a Gender Equal Future”.
Few things bring people together like major sports events. They showcase incredible athletic prowess, determination and teamwork. They also serve as a microcosm of what is possible – including a gender equal future. Research shows positive associations between leadership and playing sports – 94% of female executives and 80% of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies played competitive sports in their formative years. Sports reflect and influence our gender roles and norms in broader society so it’s vital we take a closer look at their development.
We’ve seen great strides being made on and off the field to close the gender gap. The national football federations in Australia, Norway, New Zealand, and Brazil among others have all committed to equal pay for men’s and women’s national teams. We saw equal representation of male and female athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics for the first time in history. The Rugby Sevens World Series embraced a series of changes to accelerate gender including hosting equal number of events, airing them concurrently and providing equal participation fees among others. And appetite for women’s sports continues to grow – in a survey of seven economies, 7 out of 10 people say they watch women’s sports, 54% of who only began watching over the past three years.
This is not to ignore the deep-seated challenges women still face in sports. 1 out of 5 professional female athletes have experienced sexual abuse as a child training in their respective sports – nearly double the rate of male athletes. Women make up only slightly more than a quarter (27%) of executive positions in international sports federations. Media coverage of women’s sports may have increased over the past few years, but there is still a significant gap – in the U.S. for instance, women’s sports comprises only 16% of media coverage.
In Hong Kong, women have comprised the majority of participating athletes in the last two Olympic Games (Tokyo and Paris) and whilst women make up 43% of the athletes receiving training at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, only 19% of coaches are women. There remain instances where sexism and negative stereotypes still occur within different sports.
This is why we are thrilled to be featuring a panel discussion with incredible athletes and changemakers: Chen Lu, China’s first figure skating world champion; James Farndon, CEO of Hong Kong China Rugby; Vivian Siu, FIA Formula 4 racer and gold medallist for the Hong Kong China team, and moderated by Jessica Chan, Head of Investor Solutions, Hong Kong at JLL. They will be discussing how they challenge gender norms and explore exciting developments for gender equality in the sports ecosystem as well as learnings for other sectors.
Join us as we celebrate incredible female athletes and get inspired by efforts to close the gender gap in sports. There are still limited tables and seats left – email development@twfhk.org if you would like to join us or follow us on social media for updates on learnings from our speakers.
Together, we can use this momentum to drive greater change in all spheres. Step into a gender equal future with us.
