Women Onside

Women Onside is an Australia-wide network dedicated to making football a place where women can thrive in decision making, leadership, administration, officiating, playing, refereeing, coaching, media, marketing, and other roles. We are made up of women and our allies across a variety of roles in football, from the grassroots to the elite, both on the field and off. Women Onside was formed in July 2017 to promote gender equality in football. We wanted to help Football Federation Australia (FFA) to embody FIFA’s objectives and principles into its Constitution. These include promoting the development of women’s football, and ensuring that legislative bodies take into account the importance of gender equality in football. We engaged in advocacy with FIFA and the Congress Review Working Group, and we were instrumental in achieving gender reforms in the FFA Constitution, such as the 40/40/20 principle, and the establishment of the FFA Women’s Council. Since then, many other women in the game have reached out to us. We found many passionate, capable and generous women who wanted to connect, learn and share across their various roles in football. Together, we decided to build a larger and more diverse network to connect and influence more effectively.