On Saturday, Aug. 17, the Pacific Football Club (PFC) is set to host a meet-and-greet with female athletes, coaches and business professionals to give young women a chance to meet sporting role models.
Rugby player Charity Williams and racewalker Olivia Lundman, both of whom competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics, will be there.
The event will take place at Starlight Stadium in Langford before the Victoria club plays Atlético Ottawa at 3 p.m.
PFC’s senior marketing manager Simon Avila hopes the meet-and-greet will encourage young women to pursue their sporting dreams in the “male-dominated industry.”
According to data from Toronto-based advocacy group Canadian Women and Sport, men fill a disproportionate number of sports leadership roles.
For example, 95 per cent of head coaches for women’s U Sports and Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association teams are men. For men's teams in these leagues, that number is 97 per cent.
“The lack of representation of women in leadership roles is a limiting factor for girls’ and women’s participation in sport and quality sport experiences,” the group wrote in its 2020 Rally Report.
In terms of participation in sports, data from one of the organization's surveys of over 7,500 Canadian women and girls showed that one in three young girls reported “poor perceptions of belonging and feeling unwelcome" as factors stopping them from continuing in sport.
The club's community crew manager Marijke McDonald emphasized the importance of events like this one in remedying these problems.
“You have to believe in yourself and you have to have confidence in yourself that you deserve to be in those roles,” she said. “Hopefully the event tomorrow is kind of like step one to empower young women and to inspire them to do those things.”
Avila acknowledged that, despite this event, the club has a lot to do to promote gender equity within its own organization.
For example, the majority of the club’s first team coaching and business operations staff are men, according to information available on PFC's website.
“There’s still work to do for sure, but I think it’s been a priority for us to ensure that we are providing opportunity, we are providing a pathway,” said Avila. "We as an organization are working toward that, and I think this is a good opportunity ... to showcase some of the people we do have in our organization because I think that a lot of them could be role models to a lot of the young girls in our community."
The athletes, coaches and business professionals at the meet-and-greet will be honoured at halftime.
For tickets to the event, visit: https://pacificfc.canpl.ca/.
