GB Women Using Hockey To Drive Equality In Sport

As a professional athlete, Emily Defroand knows she is in the best position to help drive gender equality in sport.

And know she has the perfect opportunity to do that having been selected alongside five fellow Great Britain Hockey players to ‘unlock the future of women’s sport’ as part of the Women’s Sport Trust’s (WST) new #UNLOCKED initiative.

Last week 40 athletes were unveiled by WST having been chosen to front the campaign, with Defroand joined by Hollie Pearne-Webb, Tess Howard, Sarah Robertson, Maddie Hinch & Hannah Martin.

As a huge advocate of pushing female athletes to the forefront of everyone’s attention, Defroand is now excited to join stars from a range of other sports to really make a difference.

“I want to help make sport accessible for everyone, no matter what age you are, your gender, ethnicity, disability etc.,” the midfielder said. 

“No matter what background you have, my huge passion is for everyone to be able to have the chance to enjoy and participate in sport.

“I’m hoping through being part of this programme alongside some other incredible athletes we can all have a unique opportunity to make a difference; that’s something I’m really passionate about.”

When it comes to gender equality, hockey is one of the leading sports with a 50/50 split in terms of participation in the UK while nearly all of the major tournaments are run concurrently, with the men and women in action on the same day.

This is especially the case in the FIH Pro League and now Emily is keen to share this with the other athletes and encourage all sports to adopt a similar approach in order to create female role models that the next generation can aspire to.

The 25-year-old said: “I think that’s the beauty of hockey. We’ve got numerous campaigns that celebrate the diversity of our sport, such as Vitality Back to Hockey and Walking Hockey. We’ve also got EuroHockey’s #EquallyAmazing campaign too and disability in hockey becoming more celebrated through Flyerz Hockey. 

“Events such as the games at the Twickenham Stoop and the FIH Pro League are a great example of the gender equality in our sport. At nearly all the major events, such as the EuroHockey Championships, the women are provided with the same media coverage and exposure as the men and I think that’s a huge thing to celebrate within the world of hockey.

“I’m just very passionate about making a difference. Growing up I’ve had some incredible female role models to look up to and to aspire to both inside hockey and outside hockey, within sport and outside of sport. 

“We’re very fortunate in our current position as centralised hockey positions - this wasn’t necessarily the situation 10 years ago and hockey is more in the limelight than ever before in terms of the FIH Pro League. 

“It’s for us to take that opportunity to celebrate hockey, celebrate women’s sport & ultimately make a difference so in 10 years’ time there is as much female coverage as there is men.”

Are you a hockey player? Are you a coach/umpire/deliverer? Are you part of the Player Pathway? Have you bought an international ticket in the last three years? There are just two weeks left to secure your FIH Pro League tickets before anyone else in the Hockey Family Window.