Wales Golf joins Women in Golf Charter
May 29, 2018.
(Pictures of the launch available through R&A)
Wales Golf is delighted to join the The R&A in today unveiling a new Women in Golf Charter as part of the organisation’s drive to increase the number of women and girls participating in golf and to encourage more opportunities for women to work within the golf industry.
The Women in Golf Charter aims to inspire an industry-wide commitment to developing a more inclusive culture within golf around the world and to enable more women and girls to flourish and maximise their potential at all levels of the sport.
Wales Golf’s vision is to make golf ‘Everyone’s Game, Anywhere’. We are working towards the Advanced Equality Standard (endorsed by UK Sport) and signing up to the Women in Golf Charter will further demonstrate Wales Golf’s commitment to establishing a more inclusive culture across all dimensions of our sport.
The charter will act as a catalyst to positively promote our ambition to improve gender balance and inclusiveness throughout the game in Wales.
We are proud not only to have signed the Charter but to have already achieved the following:
- The first Home Nation to unite both the Men’s and Ladies Unions (2007)
- The Intermediate Equality Standard and working towards the Advanced Standard
- The Disability ‘insport’ Silver award and currently working towards Gold
- Improving our Governance structure –including introducing an open recruitment process to our board based on inclusiveness and a matrix of skill sets and an element of flexibility permitting limited co-options to help improve diversity and fill skills gaps.Our board is currently 40% female including a female chair
- Over 50% of Wales Golf’s staff are female, including 2 (out of 4) senior managers
- 55% of our New2Golf Back2Golf participants are female
- 50% of our Youth Panel are female
- We have appointed 4 Female women and girls ambassadors
- The recruitment of a Women and Girls Officer supported by the R&A
We will commit to:
- Continuing to improve Wales Golf’s Governance structures
- Showcasing Women and Girls as role models throughout every aspect of the game
- Increasing the number of females participating in Golf by 20% with 50% of clubs running Women and Girls focused initiatives
- Improving the experience of Women and Girls participating in golf through working with clubs to run strong family and female friendly schemes.
- Working with clubs in promoting a wide range of events and formats to cater for all golfers and potential golfers regardless of background or ability.
- Leading the way in supporting our clubs in modernising their Governance to improve gender balance and inclusiveness across boards, committees, workforce and membership.
Adoption of the Charter will also require national federations and other golf bodies to build on current initiatives and develop new projects that will focus on encouraging more women and girls to play golf and stay within the sport as members of clubs, while also empowering women to enjoy successful careers working within the golf industry.
The Women in Golf Charter specifically aims to:
- Strengthen the focus on gender balance and provide a united position for the golf industry
- Commit national federations and organisations to support measures targeted at increasing participation of women, girls and families in golf
- Call on signatories to take positive action to support the recruitment, retention and progression of women working at all levels of the sport
- Set individual targets for national federations for participation and membership and annual reporting of progress
- Develop an inclusive environment for women and girls within golf
Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, outlined its plans to work in collaboration with its affiliated organisations, partners and the wider golf industry to achieve these goals at a launch event at The View from The Shard, one of London’s most iconic venues.