The Businesses Opening Doors For Women In Sport

A football match needs a lot more people than the twenty-two on the pitch, and a good number of them spend the whole ninety minutes staring at laptops. Analysts, sports scientists, producers, engineers, marketers and recruiters all keep sport running, but working out how to join them is a bit more tricky when the careers most of us see on TV tend to involve playing, coaching or talking about it afterwards.

Organisations are trying to make that easier for women through mentoring, internships, training and opportunities to progress once a career is underway. Some are commercial, some are non-profits and others operate within larger institutions, but each offers a different route into the industry.

The Careers Behind Sports

A Formula 1 team, for example, needs aerodynamicists, data engineers and strategists, a major football tournament needs broadcast crews, commercial teams and event managers. These jobs shape what happens on and off the field, but they don’t really get the same attention as the athletes and managers making headlines.

Job titles don’t always reveal what experience employers expect, and opportunities to learn directly from people already in the industry aren’t always easy to find. That can leave aspiring professionals trying to piece together a career path without knowing which door to knock on first.

Women’s Sport Collective And empowHERed: Finding Your People

Women’s Sport Collective is free to join and was founded in 2019 by Sue Anstiss and Kate Hannon of Fearless Women. Its website currently lists more than 17 300 members across over 130 countries. It offers career development webinars, networking events and a jobs board with salary transparency. These give women working in different areas of sport a place to build contacts and find opportunities.

empowHERed was founded by Meghan O’Donnell and Samantha Ward to connect female students and young professionals with opportunities in the sports industry. Its membership includes one-to-one mentoring, educational webinars, job shadowing, internships and job opportunities with partner organisations, alongside networking events and career development resources.

AWSM, Rising Media Stars And WINS: Getting Into The Commentary Box

The Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) has run its scholarship and internship programme since 1990. Its 2026 Scholars programme offered a $1,250 scholarship and a year of AWSM membership. Students who were not placed in internships could receive one-to-one mentoring and professional development.

Rising Media Stars was co-founded by ESPN analyst LaChina Robinson and Kevin Nixon to help women of colour pursue careers in sports broadcasting. In 2023, the NCAA announced a partnership giving participants year-round access to college sports events for practical experience, alongside professional development, mentorship and opportunities to build a talent pipeline for NCAA broadcast and digital assignments.

Women in News and Sport (WINS), run by ABC International Development, supported women working in sports media across Asia and the Pacific from 2016 to 2025. Its activities included training, mentoring, content creation and networking. Three WINS alumni were invited by FIFA to commentate at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in Pacific languages following training through the programme.

AIS Women In STEMM: For The Scientists And Engineers

The Australian Institute of Sport’s Women in STEMM talent programme is aimed at women already working in high-performance sport in science, technology, engineering, mathematics or medicine who want to progress into leadership roles.

The six-month programme includes three face-to-face modules and online training focused on leadership, personal branding and advocating for change.

SportsPro NEW ERA: Heading For The Boardroom

SportsPro NEW ERA is a year-round programme and community supporting women and non-binary professionals working in sport. It offers coaching, mentorship, networking, event opportunities and ways to contribute to SportsPro’s editorial platforms.

The programme is designed to help professionals build their profiles, develop connections and progress towards leadership positions.

More Than One Way Into The Stadium

Sport has no shortage of people who want to be part of it, but passion alone won’t get someone there. Access to the right contacts, actual experience and people willing to give someone a chance can all influence how far a career goes. Creating more routes into the industry gives women a better chance of turning that interest into something long-term.

Whether these opportunities lead to lasting careers depends on what happens after the programme ends; so it’s quite important for woman to have chances to put their skills into practice, gain experience and progress into positions where they can actually have an influence the industry.