Katie Simmonds, Global COO, SIGA, and Managing Director of the SIGAWomen Programme explained the significance of #SIGAWomen during her role as Chair of the Everything in Sport Women’s Edition panel dedicated to Empowering Women & Girls Though Sport:
“We are an organisation with 1 mission: To enhance the governance standards of Sport globally. We do it through the most advanced set of universal standards on sport integrity and are ushering sport into a new culture of good governance, transparency, and accountability through the world’s first independent rating system.
Why is this relevant to today’s panel? Because gender equity and diversity and inclusion are a key component of good governance.
To change the needle in terms of the number of women on the board of sports organisations, we have enshrined gender equity as the Gold Standard in the SIGA Universal Standards on Good Governance in Sport. This is an incentive for sports organisations to change their structure. It is possible and achievable as last year we changed our Council to have gender equity on the board”.
During the panel discussion Katie Simmonds explored with Nita Korhonen, International Motorcycling Federation how can we use a sport such a international motorcycling to break boundaries and encourage more women to participate.
The panellists agreed on the importance of having role models and #mentors for young girls to show what is possible.
Katie Matthews, Little Dot Studio – Sport, explained the importance of visibility on social media platforms that are popular amongst young girls to drive cultural change.
Dawn Peart, British Swimming addressed how typically the sport sees a decline of girls’ participation when they reach adolescence and the challenges of creating a pathway for women coaches.
Anju Solanki, MEA Consulting highlighted the gravity of the issue and explained how the sports industry is regressing when it comes to gender equity. When challenged by @Katie Simmonds on what sports can learn from the corporate world Anju explained that #diversityand inclusion was a long way off.
Katie Simmonds concluded by inviting everyone to join #SIGA’s efforts to narrow the gender gap on the boards of sports organisations and closed by inviting all female leaders to join SIGAWomen Global Mentorship Programme 2023/2024 to leave their legacy for the next generation of leaders in sport.
Check out more on the #SIGAWomen Global Mentorship Programme!
Applications open for women aged 24 or over
Lorin Hamlin (Under Armour), Kate Hamer (Axis Stars), Katie Simmonds (SIGA Global COO, and Managing Director, SIGA Women Programme), Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros (SIGA Global CEO), and Sandra Lopez (Co-Chair, SIGA AMERICA Advisory Board)
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ABOUT SIGA
SIGA is the world’s leading organisation for Sport Integrity. We are creating a whole new landscape for the sports industry by delivering independent global rating and certification for world Sport to ensure it is governed and operates under the highest integrity standards: The SIGA Universal Standards.
Funded by our Members, SIGA is a non for profit global independent organisation with one aim: To ensure the sport industry is governed under the highest integrity standards so that the values of sport are protected.
SIGA is the only organisation to bring together sport, governments, academia, international organisations, sponsors, business, rights holders, NGOs and professional services companies, from every region in the world, around a common cause of fostering greater integrity throughout sport.
SIGA is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non for-profit association, and comprises of the following continental subsidiaries: SIGA AMERICA, SIGA EUROPE and SIGA LATIN AMERICA.
For more information on SIGA, including its vision, mission and reform agenda, please refer to the website: www.siga-sport.com and FAQs.
To contact SIGA, please email: comms@siga-sport.com.
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