International Women’s Day is a global day, dedicated to celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world.
The IWD 2025 campaign theme is ‘Accelerate Action’. Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
This International Women’s Day, we are taking the opportunity to celebrate the inclusive work we do in supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of women and girls throughout our city. This including opportunities for young girls to be involved in our Rugby League pathways and programmes.
As part of our Rugby League Development Plan, we believe that Rugby League is a game for all and aim to develop and deliver more opportunities for women and girls to access our sport. We will aim to have more women playing more often in environments and formats which are adaptable to encourage participation.
We have a long and proud history of supporting equality, diversity and inclusion in our communities through our extensive range of programmes and initiatives, which continue to grow from strength to strength. In doing this, we aim to make a positive impact on our next generation of female athletes and leaders. Read on to find out how we are achieving this amongst our community and throughout the club.
Want to get involved in women and girl’s rugby league?
CLICK HERE to view our helpful guide of local clubs who are running Women & Girls’ teams this year.
Community Club Support Scheme
In the city, there are over 25 girls’ community Rugby League teams. As part of our Rugby League Development plan, our goal at the Foundation is to boost participation among young girls by enhancing club environments and standards to optimise training experiences.
Through our Community Club Support Scheme, teams can access continual professional development, including our newly launched Coaching Curriculum, focused around coaching the female player.
For more information or to sign up to the scheme, CLICK HERE.
Dance
Since its humble beginnings, our Rhinestones Dance Academy has grown from strength to strength, with classes taking place weekly during term time.
The aim of the Rhinestones has always been to give everyone the opportunity to access great dance classes at an affordable price, offering cheer and street training for young people in the city aged 4-18.
Through being a part of the group, girls have the opportunity to perform on pitch at AMT Headingley Stadium and take part in competitions across the region.
For more information or to get involved with the academy, CLICK HERE.
Netball
Leeds Rhinos Foundation are committed to supporting the NIC Leeds Rhinos Netball franchise by supporting their community programmes and providing opportunities for more young people to enjoy the country’s most popular female team sport, played by over 1.3 million women in the UK.
NIC Leeds Rhinos Netball deliver training hubs, camps and workshops across Yorkshire & the North East after successfully being awarded a licence in the newly relaunched Netball Super League, and the provision of paralell Performance Pathways in the regions.
For more information on the opportunities available in netball, please CLICK HERE.
Girls Rhinos Talent Pathway
Running in the school holidays, our Girls Rhinos Talent Pathway sessions are open access and provide top class player development activity for young players throughout the city. Our February Half Term sessions saw over 130 young girls engaging with this provision from clubs in Leeds and beyond.
Our next Development Days will take place over the Easter Holidays – details to follow.
School Competitions
Since the start of this academic year, we have engaged with over 220 girls so far through our school competitions.
School rugby, at both primary and secondary level, plays a huge role in encouraging young players to get involved with further training opportunities at their local community clubs, increasing the number of registered players within the game as a result. Players are also invited to attend our upcoming Rugby League Taster Sessions for those in the process of setting up or expanding their girl’s teams!
Upcoming Girls Taster Sessions
Date: Tuesday 11th March
Club: Whinmoor Warriors
Girls U11s (Years 5 & 6)
Venue: Fieldhead Carr Playing Fields, Whinmoor, LS14 2EG
Date: Wednesday 2nd April
Club: Guiseley Rangers ARLFC
Girls U12s (Years 6 & 7)
Venue: Nunroyd Park (opposite retail park), Guiseley, LS19 7HR
To book your place, please CLICK HERE, or contact ellis.pascall@leedshrinosfoundation.org for more information.
Disability and Inclusion Rugby
At Leeds Rhinos Foundation, we are proud to be a part of the Community Integrated Learning Disability Super League and through our own Leeds Rhinos LDSL team we can offer a place where both men and women with learning disabilities can come and enjoy rugby while developing both physically and socially.
This inclusive form of the game, alongside our Physical Disability Rugby League team, provides unique opportunities and lifelong memories for the players, as well as a chance to make lots of new friends and enjoy living out their sporting dreams while representing their favourite Super League club.
We are also proud to have a Wheelchair team who compete in the Betfred Wheelchair Super League. The Wheelchair game is an inclusive sport, with both men and women competing alongside one another. Welsh international and Rhinos player Jodie Boyd-Ward is one of the players leading the way for females in the sport as our Team Captain and helping to inspire a new generation of players to get involved in Wheelchair Rugby.
Last year, we were proud to launch our Development Wheelchair Rugby League squad, offering even more women and girls the chance to access this sport, through training sessions and regular festivals against other clubs across the country.
Girls Development Academy
Our Leeds Rhinos Girls Development Academy team, in partnership with Leeds City College, provides the opportunity for students to train, play and study full time at Leeds City College, whilst representing Leeds Rhinos at a post-16 level.
For more information on how to get involved with our Leeds Rhinos Girls Development Academy and the opportunities available, please CLICK HERE or contact ellis.pascall@leedsrhinosfoundation.org for more information!
RugBees
2023 saw the launch of the RugBees programme, launched by the RFL to encourage more primary school-aged girls to take up the sport.
The charity ‘Women in Sport’ recently revealed the findings of research into why girls as young as five years old don’t feel they belong in sport. The report – Sport, stereotypes and stolen dreams: Why girls still feel they don’t belong in sport – found that over half of parents (57%) said their daughter had felt excluded from sport, with a quarter (26%) confirming their daughter had been told ‘it wasn’t for girls’.
For more information on this year’s programme, please contact ellis.pascall@leedsrhinosfoundation.org.
