I aim to compare what football associations and campaigns currently demonstrate and see whether the motorsport industry can follow suit to help further represent women in the sport like football have done so successfully. This will allow my project to be formed from factual successes with the goal of becoming a widely used educational source for young women and girls. Football have reached huge milestones when encouraging females to participate in the sport and feel confident carrying it out, while still pushing to decrease the gender gap through their campaigns. Motorsport are yet to see an increase like football has, however, they have begun to see the gender margins slowly equalise and hopefully this will increase further through the ideas my project demonstrates.
The major starting point for motorsport that football embrace is having their own league for female-only athletes. F1 Academy has allowed female fans of F1 to embrace their passion with other women and gain valuable knowledge of future careers. As previously mentioned, football have vast broadcasting rights on many accessible television channels and radio stations which has been a major factor in reaching their intended demographic. This is one area that motorsport does not follow through on as the current F1 Academy series is not yet broadcast for fans to watch and support. In my project, it would be important to have a news feed that allows fans of the female category so that people can view the successes of the drivers.
Like motorsport, there are some large campaigns funded by well-known companies within football to encourage women and girls to enjoy the sport. The main one being another Barclay’s partnership ‘Women in Football’ in which their main purpose is to “empower women to create a brighter and more diverse future for the sport.” (womeninfootball.co.uk, 2023). Similar to motorsport’s ‘Girls on Track’ campaign, they provide opportunities for young girls to participate in activities and prove to them that a career within this profession is achievable. Both promotions within the sports’ will inspire my project by looking at the successes within and see what will be essential when promoting female empowerment.
The overall purpose of the two topics combining is to produce an educational source for female motorsport fans to access and feel comfortable in an environment where they can learn about careers within the sport. I want to heighten my own passion for the subject whilst ensuring the successful methods proven within football are displayed on my own platform.
