I am incredibly proud to lead a professional football club that featured a team in the AFL Women’s league since the women’s competition began in 2017. We are passionate in providing a pathway for our up and coming generations to continue in the sport they love as children, right through to professional athletes with no gap in their journey due to lack of opportunity.
At the Fremantle Football Club, our people are committed to fostering an environment where everyone feels safe to be themselves. As a part of this journey, we will continue to improve our own knowledge through education and story telling to create a diverse and inclusive workplace for our people. Diversity and inclusion are important to our broader Freo Family, so we believe it is just as important that we advocate in areas that are valued by our people to ensure we deliver on our Club’s purpose to ‘enrich the community and make the Freo family proud’. As a part of our Club’s vision, we aspire to be brave and strong, and to leave a legacy through our Anchors – Authentic, Heart and Connection.
We released our Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan in 2022, with the plan designed to acknowledge all groups and demographics. Over a three-year period, we have a strong emphasis on driving a positive change by ensuring accountability and alignment with the plan; enhancing the recruitment, retention and promotion of a diverse workforce; creating pathways for targeted diversity groups within the football industry; increasing organisational awareness support for diversity and inclusion; promoting diversity and inclusion within our content and engagement; monitoring and reporting on the diversity and inclusion of our workforce; removing any systematic barriers to inclusion; and reviewing and enhancing workplace accessibility for persons with disability.
By 2025 our vision is for our leaders to be engaged and accountable for diversity and inclusion. We must have multiple channels for targeted diversity groups to enter our Club and the football industry, including internships and graduate programs. We seek to have an array of development programs to enhance career prospects and retention, as well as programs and initiatives that are tailored to the unique needs of targeted diversity groups. We are working to establish control measures to reduce the potential for unconscious bias within our recruitment, selection, pay and promotion decisions. We are committed to regular review and, where necessary, the time correction of any gender pay equity gaps.
At a minimum, we aim to achieve 40% female representation within the Executive and Management group, 35% female representation within the Board of Directors, 20% female representation within the full and part time Football Program staff and 3% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation as a part of our non-casual staff group in alignment with our Reconciliation Action Plan. We strive for measures of success for Persons with Disability to be confirmed as a part of an Independent Workplace Accessibility Review and to be acknowledged by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality.
These are not simply words on paper or good intentions to be set and forgotten. I am professionally and personally committed, and compelled that my children and their children will only experience inequality by reading about it in history books.
In joining CEOs for Gender Equity, it provides me, and the Fremantle Football Club, with a platform to achieve our vision through collaborative relationships with likeminded influencers who share our deep commitment to diversity and inclusion.