Running a bit behind in posting this one.
What can we say, we’ve been a wee bit busy of late, what with Meat-Free Butchers, NoLo Pubs, Signsbury’s, Paddy and the Thumb Wrestling, Soapboxing and a host of other bits besides.
So we’ve had to do the work, rather than shout about the work we’ve done!
Anyway. Putting some wrongs to right …
We were thinking about what adidas could do to contribute to the FIFA Women’s World Cup that would bring to life their Breaking Barriers campaign – and actually create some change in the world.
Now one of the things that they believe very passionately is that “to be her, you have to see her”. In other words that to inspire the next generation of women athletes, we have to make the previous generations equally visible and celebrated.
Which got us to thinking. And researching. And what we found was that just 3% of football-related biographies on Wikipedia concern women players. And that felt like something we could do something about.
So it was that we partnered-up with the Wikimedia Foundation and a host of women sports writers and influencers and created a hack-athon that aimed to correct some of the omissions. Alongside a film to inspire members of the public to get involved themselves and workshops during the World Cup itself, we created a debate across the internet …
What we’re proudest of about this little piece of work is not the coverage – though there were belters across titles including Stylist, Refinery29, METRO, Bustle, – but the impact.
Post-World Cup, there was a 27% increase in the volume of words devoted to the England Women’s team. And there were another 500 biographies added to the site about women players.
Now THAT is a result.
