The Game Changers

Why do women only play three sets of tennis at Grand Slam tennis events and not five like the men?

In this chapter Sue explores how historical beliefs about women’s bodies and the impact of physical activity are still impacting women’s sport today.

Did we really believe that women only had a finite amount of energy or that their wombs might fall out if they were too energetic? And how did that pseudo-scientific result in football being banned for 50 years?

 This chapter sheds light on the past to help us shape the future for women’s sport.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

The opening chapters of the book ‘Game On’ – which featured in audio on the previous episodes of this podcast – mentioned the incredible Kate Richardson Walsh OBE.

Kate was captain of the England and GB Hockey team when they won bronze at London 2012, and then went on to win gold in Rio at the 2016 Olympic Games. 

We’re sharing Kate’s remarkable story again here this week on The Game Changers.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Hello and welcome to The Game Changers, the podcast that celebrates trailblazing women in sport.

I’m Sue Anstiss, and I’d like to start with a big thank you to our partners, Sport England who support The Game Changers through a National Lottery award.

I’m excited to say that this 13th series of the podcast will be a serialisation of my book, ‘Game On - The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport’.

This second episode features chapter two of the book where I share 12 Game Changing moments in women’s sport from the past decade. 

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Hello and welcome to The Game Changers, the podcast that celebrates trailblazing women in sport.

I’m Sue Anstiss, and I’d like to start with a big thank you to our partners, Sport England who support The Game Changers through a National Lottery award.

I'm excited to say that this, the13th season of the podcast is a serialisation of my book, Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women's Sport. 

In each episode, you’ll hear a new chapter, covering the history and challenges women’s sport has faced over the years, the incredible growth we’re now seeing and the trailblazers who have led the way.

This first episode includes the book's foreword, written by Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson, my introduction and the first chapter, ‘Why does it Matter’? 

Thanks for listening

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

In this special episode we’re sharing a roundup of some of the highlights from 2022. 

First up, Paralympian Hannah Cockcroft talked about being an advocate for all wheelchair users. 

Next, in a fascinating conversation with Radha Balani from Beyond Sport we addressed the issues of anxiety, depression and eating disorders in WSL footballers. 

We brought together a powerful panel of experts to explore the issues of women's sport kit. Wendy Taylor from the Youth Sport Trust shared some shocking stats about how periods & clothing affect girls’ participation in school sport before Rimla Akhtar shared her personal experience of clothing bans. Finally, why are women still wearing dresses to play sport? GB Hockey player and sportswear activist Tess Howard enlightens us. 

Sue Day is now head of operations and finance at the RFU. The former England Captain had 59 caps for her country. She spoke to me about being an LGBTQ+ woman in rugby.

In an incredibly moving conversation with Kelly Lindsey, the Former Head Coach of the Afghanistan Women's Football Team, tells me about the process of creating a national team and what football meant to Afghan women. 

Dr Emma Ross reflects on her work at the English Institute of Sport and why sports science is currently failing our elite female athletes.

In panel discussion on racial inclusion in women's’ sport, Garnet Mackinder, Diversity lead at Sport England and a former Prem 15s rugby player shares her personal experience of finding rugby, before the ECB’s Shruti Saujani highlights her learnings from taking cricket to women in South Asian communities. Finally, we hear from former British Paralympian, Anne Wafula Strike, as she highlights the importance of how we talk about women’s sport. 

Hear Sarah Hunter, England captain and England’s all-time most capped rugby player on the importance of young girls seeing strong, powerful female roles models. 

The first guest to ever return to The Game Changers podcast, Sally Munday, CEO at UK Sport, talks so openly about how we change attitudes to gender in sport. 

Rachel Pavlou, a total trailblazer in women’s football, reflects on the Euros and why its so important to recognise the people that played a part in the growth of the women’s game

Finally we hear from Shaunagh Brown, former England Professional player on the role of allies in sport.

If you’d like to hear more from these incredible trailblazers, you can find the full episodes all podcast platforms, or head over to fearlesswomen.co.uk

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers through a National Lottery Award.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Sally Munday is CEO of UK Sport and a former CEO of England and GB Hockey. 

To mark our 100th episode we returned to talk to this extraordinary woman, considered by many to be one of the most influential individuals in British Sport. This episode was also recorded live in front of an audience at Leaders Week London.  

To find out more about Sally’s early life and the transformative work she did in over 20 years at England Hockey, do go back and listen to episode 3 in the very first series.

Sally is incredibly candid in this fascinating episode as she first shares her experience of leading UK Sport as COVID struck and what changes were needed to the organisation, the sports sector and her leadership style. 

We talk about the changing culture of UK Sport, gender balance in Team GB, Paralympics GB and elite coaching and the work of the organisation around major international events. 

Sally is very frank about what is needed to overcome the inherent misogyny that still exists in sport, and we also talk about important issues of safeguarding and athlete welfare.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Rachel Pavlou was described as the most selfless person in women’s football by former England coach (and a previous guest on this podcast) Hope Powell. Rachel has over 30 years of sports development experience, specialising in the development of women's football at The FA for almost 25 years. 

Rachel is currently the FA Women’s Development Manager specialising in Diversity & Inclusion. Her main areas of responsibility are to develop football opportunities for females in under-represented communities. 

She is also a designated Expert in Women's Football Development at FIFA, and a Trustee at the Aston Villa FC Foundation. Rachel’s been a key member in the implementation of the Barclays FA Women's Super League, and has managed participation and talent development programmes, along with heading up research into mixed football and initiating the Kick Off Your Career campaign. 

Rachel continues to be an integral part of The FA’s work, through her experience working at both the domestic and international level of the women’s game.
It’s no wonder that Rachel was the woman most suggested when we asked on social media for potential guest for The Game Changers. 

Her passion for the game and ability to drive change is extraordinary, but she does all this with huge humility.
We explore the vast changes in women’s football and attitudes to the women’s game when she first joined the FA in the 90’s. Rachel shares her own path in sports development and coaching, and we explore the development and future of the Women’s Super League and the potential legacy of the Lionesses win in the Euros this summer.   

Rachel is very open about the challenge the FA faces in making women’s football truly ‘For All’ and shares her learnings and work in the diversity and inclusion space. We also explore what other sports can learn from the experience of women’s football in the past decade.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast through the National Lottery

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Garnet Mackinder, Anne Wafula Strike & Shruti Saujani join Sue Anstiss to explore equality in sport.

As we fight for gender equality in sport are we doing enough to ensure our approach is intersectional? What needs to change to ensure all women feel welcome in sport from grassroots participation to elite pathways & the boardroom. 

It’s a topic that can be uncomfortable as people worry they might say the wrong thing or use the wrong language. It’s not just a matter of asking ethnically diverse women to be the experts on all things inclusion - we all need to do our own research here. 

That said, we were thrilled to welcome this expert panel this podcast who all work in the D&I space and kindly agreed to help explore this topic with some lived experiences as they shared practical recommendations to help us all make sport more inclusive.

Our four game changing guests were:

• Garner Mackinder - an Equality Lead at Sport England who played semi-professional rugby at Exeter Chiefs and has been capped by England 7s. 
• Anne Wafula Strike - an extraordinary para-athlete who is also an author, inspirational speaker, disability rights campaigner and powerful advocate for the less fortunate in society - passionate about equality and the right of disabled people to be heard. 
• Shruti Saujani - Engagement Lead for ED&I at the England and Wales Cricket Board having led the ECB’s Dream Big Desi Women project. This saw Shruti and her team focussed on empowering more women in Britain from South Asian backgrounds to play cricket at all levels. 

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast through the National Lottery.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

Emma Mitchell was Red Rose number #19, with an international rugby career that spanned 15 years. She won 57 caps for England and Great Britain, competed in 4 World Cups with the 1994 World Cup win being her career highlight.

Following her retirement in 2002, Emma went on to coach at club, regional and international level in the USA, Canada and the UK.

In 2007 Emma joined the English Institute of Sport as a Performance Lifestyle Coach, supporting over 200 elite GB Hockey athletes and coaches over four Olympic cycles. Over the last 10 years, she’s also been involved in a number of coach development programmes, providing mentoring support to coaches in Tennis, Squash, Sailing, Hockey, Rugby, Swimming, Boxing and Football.

In this fascinating and entertaining conversation, we explore the early days of women’s rugby in England in the 1980s and Emma shares the conditions laid down for women to be allowed to play at London clubs and what it took to place for your country. 

What she’s learnt from a life in coaching and in her role as a lifestyle Advisor at the EIS. What can women’s team sport learn from Olympic and Paralympic programmes as it becomes professional and what the future looks like for women’s rugby players globally. 
Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers through the National Lottery 

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production

To  celebrate Jill Scott being crowned Queen of the Jungle, in the 2022 'I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out If Here', we’re giving you another chance to hear this brilliant interview with her. Enjoy! 

Football legend Jill Scott MBE won over 160  caps for England, played in four World Cups, was part of Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics and was a member of the winning England team at this summer's Euros.  

Jill left her hometown club of Sunderland to play for Everton in 2006 and went on to help them win the FA Women's Premier League Cup in 2008 and FA Women's Cup in 2010.  

In 2008 she was voted the FA Players' Player of the Year and 2011 the FA International Player of the Year. The FIFA technical report after the 2011 Women's World Cup described her as one of England's four outstanding players: "an energetic, ball-winning midfielder who organises the team well, works hard at both ends of the pitch and can change her team's angle of attack." 

Jill was awarded an MBE the 2020 New Year’s Honours for services to football.

Thank you to Sport England who support The Game Changers Podcast with a National Lottery award.

Find out more about The Game Changers podcast here: https://www.fearlesswomen.co.uk/thegamechangers

Hosted by Sue Anstiss
Produced by Sam Walker, What Goes On Media

A Fearless Women production