I had the pleasure of attending the Million Womens Movement on the Gold Coast over the weekend. This event/initiative empowers Women and females to take action through motivation, lifestyle choices, mentors and support and networking.
It’s definitely a different time on the planet now, and such an empowering one.
Over my time in sport, I’ve managed to raise over $1.5 million for women’s sport in my tenure.
Sport is a unique landscape, particularly individual sports where athletes rely on prize money and winnings.
WHY INVESTING IN WOMENS SPORT IS IMPORTANT
Abby Rose Mcmahon, Chloe Covell OLY & Arisa Trew OLY in the Junior female pathways developed for skateboarding.
Previously, Skateboarding had an Opens division. This was simply a Mens and Womens division combined, and at the time, the level of the women’s was not high enough to achieve winnings in most cases.
The Women’s Division was brought into competition and we had challenges from the public space to manage, the questions we had were:
1. There isn’t as many competing, so its easier to win.
3. The level isn’t as high as the Mens.
These were common and became a big conversation around how prize money was to be split, now that we had both male and female divisions respectively.
Here is a really important piece of advice for those who ever come across the same conversations
‘Having smaller prize money or resources allocated to Womens programs creates a problem where you are punishing the ones who do turn up.
The women who attend train just as hard, and travel just as far.
By creating a platform of equal opportunity, this will attract more Women, and by making it more competitive, the level increases.’
We supported Haylie Powell from a junior, to Paris Olympics and beyond,
They TURN UP
I used to donate insurance to the We skate QLD annual event spearheaded by Indigo Willing.
When our office was flooded in 2022, we put out an SOS for support to help with Cleanup. and the crew that came to the rescue was all of the volunteers of We Skate QLD.
It's a space. While that sounds simple, the demographic was an amazing array of female leaders, in the widest range of fields you have ever seen, who all had a common goal and could share knowledge, networks and resources to each other and newcomers alike to grow opportunity.
I can see the space and event being extremely valuable to young women working through sport and their careers and being able to access an amazing range of successful women to be able to be supported and mentored on their journey.
The Key Message - Believe
It’s such an amazing environment to confront your demons or hesitations and find the tools to create self belief, which becomes your own perpetual motion machine.
I want to thank the team at Million Womens Movement for the privilige of being in their presence. I have always believed in the action ‘ nothing about us without us’ and I believe the movement will be a strong advocacy group into the future in a thriving women’s world.
What we saw at the Million Womens Movement
It's a space. While that sounds simple, the demographic was an amazing array of female leaders, in the widest range of fields you have ever seen, who all had a common goal and could share knowledge, networks and resources to each other and newcomers alike to grow opportunity.
I can see the space and event being extremely valuable to young women working through sport and their careers and being able to access an amazing range of successful women to be able to be supported and mentored on their journey.
The Key Message - Believe
It’s such an amazing environment to confront your demons or hesitations and find the tools to create self belief, which becomes your own perpetual motion machine.
I want to thank the team at Million Womens Movement for the privilege of being in their presence. I have always believed in the action ‘ nothing about us without us’ and I believe the movement will be a strong advocacy group into the future in a thriving women’s world.
