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July 8, 2022
With the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 having kicked off 6 July in England, there is increased visibility and focus on women’s football. To leverage this opportunity, the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) launched the #SeeItAchieveIt campaign to address the lack of diversity in the women’s game.
According to the union, there are just three Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage players on the current national side and only 29 out of 300 footballers playing in the Women’s Super League (WSL). The PFA is aiming to address this under-representation by creating a network for current WSL players with Black, Mixed Heritage and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. With a primary focus on increasing the visibility of diverse role models, the network will receive peer-to-peer mentoring and bespoke support from the union’s Women’s Football and EDI (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) teams following the model used for its Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme.
Spearheading the campaign is Fern Whelan, who became the PFA’s first women’s football equality, diversity and inclusion executive last September. The former England footballer who won three caps hopes to help young girls believe “the dream can be achieved” through the campaign, and inspire the younger generation of ethnic minorities to take up the game. The initiative kicked off with videos featuring stories from current and former WSL players Demi Stokes, Nikita Parris and Anita Asante in the effort to increase the visibility of diverse role models.
“I’ve worked closely with players across the WSL to let them know about the PFA’s work addressing under-representation in all areas of the game. The players we have on board will be sharing inspiring stories about their pathways into the women’s professional game and providing mentorship to aspiring female footballers. This campaign is part of our overall EDI strategy to see greater representation in all areas of the game, and our next phase will include working with former players to build a collective of inspiring role models. You can’t underestimate the power of role models and the impact they can have,” said Whelan.
In addition to the campaign, the PFA will be implementing a three-year strategy to improve diversity levels across the entirety of women’s football. This will include collaboration with other football stakeholders and expanding the project scope to include support for Black, Mixed Heritage and Minority Ethnic women in other roles within football.
Arsenal’s Parris, said, “The ‘See It. Achieve It.’ campaign speaks for itself – literally! It allows young people to see the pathway they can take and really dream and believe that they can achieve it because those who have gone before them have done it.”
Other diversity efforts are also in place. This past May, the Football Association and the Premier League, announced plans to create a wider and more diverse talent pool for women’s football. The FA’s director of women’s football Baroness Sue Campbell expressed that the Discover My Talent project launched last summer combined with plans for the Emerging Centres for girls aged 8 to 16 will help create a “significant shift” in terms of diversity at the top end of the English women’s game. The plans will see up to 70 Girls’ Emerging Talent Centres across the country, allowing more players to be identified and supported, in addition to the professional game academies that will launch in 2023-24.
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