International Women’s Day

8^th March 2021 International Women’s Day, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

 In honour of IWD 2021 we are bringing together a host of inspiring females from the world of sport across all ages and abilities to celebrate the achievements if women and inspire the next wave of female athletes.

A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we are all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequity. We can choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all #ChooseToChallenge.

Now more than ever, it is essential to lean on a community that encourages perseverance and helps break through barriers.

Join our social takeover from Thursday 4^th March until Monday 8^th March as we celebrate the achievements of women in sport and chat to athletes from a range of our partners including British Gymnastics, Severn Stars, England Athletics, Loughborough Lightning and Ulster Rugby.

First up is a quick chat with Cooke and Ulster Rugby back row, and City of Derry RFC women’s coach, Beth Cregan about her inspirations and achievements.

🔴⚪Which woman in sport inspires you?

There are so many women to look up to in sport, with some of them being the likes of Katie Taylor, Serena Williams, Farah Palmer and Fiona Coghlan. Each of those women were dominant in their sports and provided idols for the next generation of women. Katie Taylor and Serena Williams are the greatest in their sports, including comparing them to male counterparts. Whereas women in rugby Farah Palmer and Fiona Coghlan helped establish women’s rugby to the heights that it is today. Farah Palmer has done so much throughout her career in the Black Ferns and continued to excel after her playing career pushing the growth of women’s rugby. She helped change the expectations of how women can be involved off-field, being the first women elected to the New Zealand Rugby Board. Fiona Coghlan (along with the rest of the 2013 squad) showed a lot of Irish women that we can stand toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest and win. She continued to push social norms for women players by becoming a regular pundit on national TV, increasing the visibility of the game inadvertently.

🔴⚪What do you consider your biggest achievement?

There have been a few, but probably being able to captain Ulster. Having played rugby from such a young age and supported Ulster from the start, it was always an ambition to play for my province, so to lead the team out was a great honour. I’m really missing all the girls but it hopefully won’t be long until we are back together in some capacity. There is still so much to come from us as a group, especially with the young talent coming through.

🔴⚪What do you #ChoosetoChallenge?

I #ChoosetoChallenge inequality in rugby by helping to highlight the talent at every level and growing the reach of the women’s game. It would be great to make more of the women’s games accessible to a wider audience, enhance player profiles and increase sponsorship for female teams.

To find out more about Beth read more: https://bit.ly/3c2XJPK

Check out the rest of our social takeover this weekend.