“We should be focussing on the amazing sporting achievements of women athletes, not on how sexy people think they are!”

I’ve said this a few times over the last couple of weeks, both to delegates at the Women Play Sport conference, and to Troy the bouncer outside the bar at WSFF’s work drinks. The fact that I will now splurge at anyone who’ll listen about the work of WSFF is a marker of just how much the issues facing women in sport have got under my skin, as well as how much my confidence in speaking about them has grown.  Although Troy was sceptical at first, he did promise to wear our WSFF pin badge on his coat in the end. It’s not clear whether this was a genuine offer or an attempt to get me to go back inside.

The Women Play Sport conference was held in Loughborough and I was lucky enough to go along with others from WSFF. It was two days of brilliant speeches, debates and networking designed to inspire and help sport deliverers engage with women and girls more effectively. Apart from generally supporting and making sure things ran smoothly, I had a few specific jobs: helping to man the WSFF stand, talking to delegates and informing them about what it is that we do, and potentially most crucially of all, looking after Tim’s file. I really got into the swing of the conference; it was exciting to meet so many people who do or would like to do great things for women and sport, on top of the obvious excitement that staying in a hotel brings.

A main event in WSFF’s recent calendar has been the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Select Committee on women’s sport which Tim gave evidence at. We’ve been preparing for it and doing a lot of follow up work, making sure our voice was thorough and knowledgeable. Again it was a real privilege to attend this – I even got my face on BBC Parliament TV!

Day to day in the office I’ve been researching school swimming, older women and whether they are being encouraged to get active, and what impact body image has on girls’ participation levels.  Our new Internship Programme is also now fully off the ground (if you’re reading this thinking ‘Ooh that sounds like fun’ then WSFF needs YOU! You can apply by visiting this page)

Meanwhile most of the office has become indispensable as a large extended family made up of many agony aunts. Some over curry/beer/white rum bonding time has been great, and now with our new CEO Ruth completing the team I feel excited for what’s in store for WSFF over the coming weeks!