As part of our celebration of International Women’s Day tomorrow, the EHF is delighted to announce the launch of a kitemark that we will be encouraging players, fans and member associations to use when they have an Equally Amazing story to tell!
To help us launch the EA kitemark we spoke with Janne Müller-Wieland and David Harte (co-chairs of the EHF Athletes Committee and EquallyAmazing ambassadors for European Hockey).
EHF: Since the launch of the Equally Amazing campaign last year has it made you more aware of gender challenges in the world around you both inside and outside hockey?
David was very clear “I would have to say it really has, yes. This subject definitely transcends all sports and is very much a hot topic in the business world too. I know in Ireland there has been a very active campaign known as 20×20 with the aim of shifting Ireland’s cultural perception of women’s sport by 2020.” Janne added, “I have been aware of the challenges before – a lot in the business world, but also in the sports world but I feel like the campaign has touched a lot of people and made them more aware of gender equality, which is great!”
EHF: This year the International Women’s Day theme is #EachforEqual, how important do you think it is that genders support each other in decision making for hockey?
Janne said that it was crucial, that genders support each other. “We are connected to our men’s team and have got a strong voice within our German federation. We all develop ideas together and work very closely together, regardless of gender. It’s great to see that other hockey federations are becoming more equally amazing as well. Even other sports are starting to understand the importance of it” David is very proud that hockey is a global leader in this area “We have seen how EHL has been groundbreaking in appointing women umpires to officiate over EHL games and FIH ProLeague recently appointed men and women to both gender games. The next challenge is to have better gender balance around the boardrooms of national associations and governing bodies of sport where the decision making is ultimately done!”
EHF: The EHF is launching today a kitemark that can be used by anyone in hockey for projects that promote gender balance – is this a useful tool for awareness?
Both were agreed that having a tool that can easily be used on social media to promote gender balance projects is great and will help to create even more awareness for it.
We look forward to the kitemark being used by all Equally Amazing projects!