Taking a TeamView: Why Sport and Tech Both Need More Women
With increased female representation, there is a significant opportunity for young girls to feel that their voices are not only welcome but also essential in both sports and tech.
Not yet a subscriber? Join over 2,500 sports business leaders, from Formula 1 to the Premier League, that read Sports Pundit every week to get impactful industry insights.
BIG IDEA
The Big Idea is brought to you by the Global Institute of Sport!
The Global Institute of Sport is the leading destination for Master's degrees, executive education and professional qualifications in sport around the world.
They count world-famous stadiums and surrounding venues among their state-of-the-art campus facilities across the globe, including London's Wembley Stadium, Miami's DRV PNK Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ready to master the global sports industry? Enquire today about their in-person and online courses.
In the tech industry, while the overall rate of women working is nearly equal to that of men, their presence in technical roles like developers and data engineers remains notably low.
This gender disparity is poised to worsen.
A McKinsey report highlights that fewer women are graduating from STEM disciplines. Additionally, the representation of women is lowest in rapidly growing tech roles, such as DevOps and cloud computing. If current trends continue, the share of women in tech roles in Europe is projected to decline to just 21 percent by 2027.
The global landscape further underscores this imbalance, with nine out of ten Chief Product and Technology Officers (CPTOs) being male. This statistic illustrates the substantial gender disparity present in the tech industry today.
Faith Wheller, TeamViewer's VP of Brand, Sports Partnerships, and Integrated Marketing, stresses the need to create conditions that attract, nurture, and retain diverse talent to achieve gender parity.
Speaking on the Sports Pundit Podcast., Wheller emphasised the significant room for improvement in this area.
She also highlighted the broader impact of this talent gap, noting that women make up only 9.8% of contributors to open-source software projects. This underrepresentation affects how technology is designed, produced, and, ultimately, who it best serves.
"We need to create products that are specifically for women and build from the ground up specifically for that demographic," Wheller asserted, highlighting the importance of tailored technological development.
As a proud partner of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team and Manchester United - supporting both the men’s and women's teams, Wheller has identified that there are similar challenges facing the sports industry.
Having only been formed in May 2018, United’s women’s team has benefited from substantial investment and interest in the past few years, resulting in recent success at The Adobe Women's FA Cup Final.
Partly spurred on by the Lionesses’ recent success at international tournaments such as the 2022 Euros, increased investment and interest in the women’s game has started to lead to a more tailored approach finally being taken.
This includes things such as sports equipment and apparel, acknowledging the physiological differences between female and male athletes (See Ida Sports, Hettas, Saysh, Moolah Kicks), as well as access to data and insights now being more widely available for female athletes than in the past.
Following on from the W Series, we’ve more recently seen the launch of F1 Academy, aiming to inspire young women to pursue careers in motorsport.
Seeing this change happening inspired TeamViewer to act.
Launched in collaboration with both Manchester United and the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team, TeamViewer's SheSportTech initiative, is designed to encourage and support more women in pursuing careers specifically within sports technology.
The program offers practical support through mentoring, networking, and educational opportunities, helping women gain a foothold in this sector.
Participants in SheSportTech can expect to receive training grants and have the chance to connect with female professionals already working in the field.
Wheller stresses the importance of highlighting these role models in order to encourage young girls to pursue STEM fields, ensuring they see a place for themselves - be it as software engineers, developers, or data analysts in Formula 1 or the Manchester United scouting department.
"We actually took over the sides of Manchester United recently and showed real-life women who work at the club on the side of the stadium, with female footballers as well, and they were just so proud and just so happy that they'd been showcased," said Wheller.
"It's to inspire a career in technology and it starts, I think, at the school age really [by] inspiring girls to study more STEM-related subjects, to get the work experience, to find those mentors that can encourage them to just try some of these careers and vocations," Wheller elaborates.
While this is a sole project for now, Wheller doesn’t want this to end with just TeamViewer. One day this could encompass a whole array of other brands from across the tech industry.
“I would love for more tech brands to get on the movement of shining a light on sport technology, because we need more investment into technology particularly for women's sport, and so I would hope that this [initiative] would start a snowball effect.”
With increased female representation, there is a significant opportunity for young girls to feel that their voices are not only welcome but also essential in both sports and tech.
This integration is key to fostering a truly inclusive environment where diverse talent is nurtured and celebrated. It also exemplifies the significant positive impact that a brand can have through working with sport.
PODCAST
Want to hear more from my conversation with Faith?
We discuss the Launch of SheSportTech, Faith’s Career Journey, why TeamViewer wanted to sponsor Manchester United, activating sponsorship with enterprise customers, the potential opportunity to engage women with F1 Academy, speaking to different audiences and much, much more.
Listen to the full podcast via the link below - and I’d love to hear what you think! 👇
FURTHER READING
A trend is emerging… Back in March, the Drone Racing League (DRL) unveiled DRL's Women Taking Flight.
The program will see them launch drone racing competitions, esports tournaments, and STEM curriculum to recruit the best women drone pilots to fly in DRL and - their partner - the U.S. Air Force, encouraging all women to rise in traditionally male-dominated spaces.
The DRL’s former SVP, Head of Partnership Development, Ari Mark, was a guest on the Sports Pundit Podcast back in December.
SOCIAL CLUB
The Sports Pundit Social Club is a monthly series of industry Happy Hours happening in New York and London. This event aims to unite approx. 100 executives, founders, investors, and athletes in a relaxed and informal setting.
Whether you're a seasoned professional, an avid reader of the Sports Pundit newsletter, or a listener or guest on the Sports Pundit Podcast, this gathering promises to be an enriching experience for all.
RSVP for our upcoming event in New York (TOMORROW) and add yourself to the waitlist for London (30th) using the links below.
JOB BOARD
Project Manager - Arsenal (London, UK)
Marketing Manager, Europe – Formula 1 (London, UK)
Senior Insights Manager - England Rugby (London, UK)
Manager, Strategy & Operations – NFL (New York, US)
Manager, Club Strategy – MLB (New York, US)
To see these jobs, and more jobs like these, visit the Sports Pundit Job Board, hosted by Peak 72.
Do you have a job you’d like to promote to the amazing readers of this newsletter? Email me 📩
TALENT TALKS
Getting insights and news via email is great, but there's so much untapped knowledge in our community. We want to open up the floor and hear from everyone.
It’s all part of moving from mass emails to meaningful, one-on-one conversations.
The Big Idea is brought to you by the Global Institute of Sport!
The Global Institute of Sport is the leading destination for Master's degrees, executive education and professional qualifications in sport around the world.
They count world-famous stadiums and surrounding venues among their state-of-the-art campus facilities across the globe, including London's Wembley Stadium, Miami's DRV PNK Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ready to master the global sports industry? Enquire today about their in-person and online courses.