Women in Sport: Overcoming and Succeeding
To mark International Women's Day, we were delighted to present this annual event in memory of Edith Morley, believed to be the first woman to be awarded the title of professor in a British University.
The panel discussion brought together female innovators and game-changers from the sporting world. Historically, sports have been a male dominated arena with very low numbers of women involved. Today, the number of female athletes are rising significantly, yet, women's sports are highly underrepresented in the media, and female athletes earn considerably less than their male counterparts. Th panel covered a wide range of topics including how these remarkable sportswomen have overcome barriers and gone onto achieve great success in their fields. The panel included:
Fara Williams: Fara is a true pioneer of women's football and is the holder of an unrivalled 172 caps for England, more than any other player in the history of English football. Fara made her debut for England in 2001 and was awarded an MBE in 2016 for her service to football and charity.
Kelly Chambers: Kelly previously captained Reading FC Women and is currently the Director of Women and Girls' Football at Reading Football Club as well as First Team Manager of Reading FC Women.
Cath Bishop: Cath is a former British rower and in partnership with Katherine Granger she was World Champion in the coxless pair in 2003, and in 2004 they won a silver medal at the Olympic games.
Alice Kirkup: Alice is a current student at the University of Reading and captain of the University's netball 1st team.
This special event was named in honour of Edith Morley, appointed as Professor of English Language at Reading in 1908. Over 100 years on, we were pleased to celebrate this extraordinary part of our heritage with this annual event to inspire young women today to achieve great things.
