As women’s sport attracts investment globally, emerging economies remain underfunded yet full of potential. This session explores how professional level women’s sport can drive systemic change beyond NGO-led models -through leadership, visibility and economic inclusion. Case studies highlight strategies to scale investment, unlock opportunity and reimagine women’s sport as a transformative force.
In many emerging economies, women’s sport has long been shaped by NGO and charity-led participation programmes. This panel challenges the limits of that traditional development model, spotlighting how professional women’s leagues and clubs are becoming powerful vehicles for systemic transformation, from gender equity and cultural visibility to economic inclusion and legal reform.
KEY TOPICS
- Examining geographic disparities in investment
- Understanding the cultural power of professional women’s sport in shifting gender norms and shaping policy in traditional societies
- Questioning whether participation alone is sufficient, or if true empowerment requires visibility, ownership, economic opportunity and leadership roles within professional sport