Vote British Rowing for NGB of the Year Award!

British Rowing is delighted to announce that we have been selected as a finalist for the National Governing Body (NGB) of the Year Award as part of the Women’s Sport Trust 2016 #BeAGameChanger Awards. Please support British Rowing by voting for us today!

The award recognises the work of NGBs to engage women and girls in sport and to raise the profile of women’s sport. British Rowing is committed to continuing our inclusive approach to all our participation, high performance and pathway programmes, as well as across our business. Examples of our work includes:

• Female membership of British Rowing is growing at a faster rate to men, up 3% in 2015 compared to 2014, and the latest APS data showed an increase in female participation up 45% in 2015 compared to October 2012.
• Our membership is nearing an even split, with 43% female, 57% male.
• We have a developed a dedicated online community, Women on Water, specifically aimed at high performance female rowers to support their training needs, highlighting performance pathway initiatives and promoting women’s rowing generally.
• As an organisation, British Rowing has had female chairs for 27 years, Dame Di Ellis and currently Annamarie Phelps CBE. A third of our Board are female, half of the Directors’ team is female and 48% of our staff our female.
• Internationally, we have female representation on FISA’s international commissions and have hosted other national federation females on leadership pathways.
• We were a key partner of Women’s Sport Week in 2015. Katherine Grainger CBE, Olympic gold medallist, was an ambassador for the week and our Chairman, Annamarie Phelps CBE, supported the action group and blogged on the website.
• Balanced coverage of men’s and women’s successes in our communications.
• Two of the largest women’s rowing events in the world, Women’s Eights Head and Women’s Henley Regatta, were founded by British Rowing.
• Our female athletes contributed three gold medals to the TeamGB haul and one gold medal for ParalympicsGB at London 2012.

Andy Parkinson, CEO of British Rowing commented, “It is a real privilege and honour to be selected as a finalist, particularly amongst such strong competition. As a sport and a business, we are committed to achieving gender equality and inclusiveness in all that we do. While we have made great progress over the past few years, we are not complacent and continue to look for ways we can further improve gender equality in the future.”

Annamarie Phelps CBE, Chairman of British Rowing added, “I’m very proud of all of the work we do to support girls and women in rowing at all levels, both here and overseas. The sport has been hugely welcoming to me over the past 30 years, helping to create some of my happiest memories. I hope the rowing community and beyond support our sport by voting for us to become NGB of the Year.”

The public now has the chance to vote for the NGB of the Year Award. Public voting is open between Monday, 18 April and Sunday, 1 May 2016, with the winners announced at the #BeAGameChanger Awards event on 12 May 2016.

Please show your support for British Rowing by voting for us today. Vote for British Rowing