INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is an annual global day which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women on the 8 March.

The first International Women’s Day gathering was in 1911 and has been supported by millions of people over the years focussed on various themes. Every year the day brings the opportunity to address the inequalities women face and a call to action for everyone to make positive change for women globally.

This year the United Nations theme is Invest in Women; Accelerate Progress, while the International Women’s Day 2024 campaign theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’.

From a cricket perspective, there has been vast progress in the women’s game over the last few years with the PCA driving standards forwards, working collaboratively with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The introduction of a professional domestic structure, the early success of The Hundred and installing equal match fees for the England Men’s and Women’s players have been transformative.

The Women in Cricket Network (WiC) has also been created to help drive the game towards becoming a more equitable, diverse and inclusive sport. The group has a particular focus on women in the workforce across the ECB, network and charity partners in cricket. They have three pillars of areas of focus Connect (Build a network of women and allies), Support (Improve understanding of challenges faced) and Listen (Provide a platform for women’s voice).

At the PCA we have a huge focus on achieving equity in women’s cricket working closely with the ECB to achieve this

In celebration of International Women’s Day 2024, the PCA in collaboration with Surrey County Cricket Club and the South East Stars, held an #InspireInclusion event at the Kia Oval on Thursday 7 March. There were two fantastic panel line ups and the opportunity to ‘come and try’ cricket. 

The challenges and barriers that women face in cricket is mirrored across sport, which is why the theme of #InspireInclusion is quite fitting for our inclusive event, with the panels representing a range of sports and roles within sport. 

Our first panel focused on women leaders in sport, including Rimla Akhtar OBE – Inclusion and Diversity specialist in sport, Simone Pound – Director of EDI at the Professional Football Association, Sue Anstiss MBE – author and pioneer in women’s sport, and Katie Sadleir – CEO Commonwealth Games Federation, hosted by Emma Calvert, Director of Women’s Cricket at South East Stars. 

For this panel, we want the audience to hear first-hand the panels personal experiences and their perspectives and insights on how they got to where they are today, with the aim to inspire the audience to excel in their own fields.  

Being a female leader in sport and also a former athlete, I was excited to be hosting our second panel of current sports women, including Fran Wilson (cricket), Helen Ward (football) and Shaunagh Brown (rugby).

We explored their own challenges in their sports and the importance of allyship. No doubt they will be inspired by the first panel and aspire to become female leaders in any sector post their sporting career. One of our biggest allies is our CEO Rob Lynch who will welcome guests and open the event, outlining the importance of events such as these and how inclusion is weaved through everything we do at the PCA.

The day was an opportunity to network with other likeminded women and men from different sectors other than sport. Following the panels and networking, there was a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a ‘come and try’ cricket session with former professional cricketer for Surrey and England, Alex Tudor who is also one of our PCA Inclusion Champions supporting our EDI education across our membership.

At the PCA we have a huge focus on achieving equity in women’s cricket working closely with the ECB to achieve this.  Our Cricket Department have a designated Director of Women’s Cricket and Player Rights who is leading on the player voice to ensure equity is achieved for our members. We’ve recently set up an internal working group to capture all the work being done by the PCA for the women’s game, which has identified areas where we can address and agree a plan of action.

No doubt there will be a host of events happening around the world to recognise International Women’s Day and no matter the theme, there is much work to be done, but the more we talk about positive action the more we will see change happen for the benefit of women’s sport.

Donna Fraser OBE is the Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA)