Women’s History Month: An Interview with Professor Laura McAllister

We caught up with Former Welsh Football Captain Laura McAllister to chat everything Women’s History.

McAllister was awarded CBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2016. Laura’s most recent achievement is joining the UEFA Executive Committee as its designated female member.

Listen to the conversation below, or continue reading!

Tell us about your favourite memory as a woman in sport.

“I guess my favourite memory as a woman in sport would be my debut for Wales out in Bielefeld in Germany. Got absolutely hammered by the Germans, but it was the first official game of the tournament, or the second official game, first away game of European Qualifying Tournament, which was held under the auspices of the FAW.

“It was my debut and I marked one of the legends of German football, Heidi Mueller. So it was a great experience and obviously very happy memories of putting on the Welsh shirt for the first time.”

Tell us about the most difficult challenge you’ve faced as a Women in Sport.

“In terms of challenges, I think those have mostly come about in the early days of my football career, when there was no official recognition of the women’s team and we had to campaign quite hard, and it was more a case of being ignored than being ignored and patronised, rather than being discriminated against. But of course, there was an underbelly of discrimination and prejudice, which explained why we were being ignored.

“So I think those are the most difficult challenges. And then laterally, obviously, trying to help reform governance of sport generally. As chair of Sport Wales on the board of UK Sport and now in football with the FAW and UEFA, we’ve still got a lot of battles to fight, really, to make sure that women’s voices are heard around the board table, because otherwise we just replicate the mistakes of men and men’s sport. And it seems to be really important that we take the opportunity to change and drive an alternative model, really, of how women in sport actually operates.

Growing up, what women in sports did you look up to?

“As I was growing up, I probably looked very local in terms of women sports, women that I looked up to first and foremost, my teachers in school, my two hockey teachers, Bev Pearce and Mrs Owen, Barbara Owens, and my netball teacher, Cynthia Morgan, and they were really influential in getting me into netball and hockey. They always tried to keep me away from football, but I was always going to play football as well. But they were great inspiration. I mean, all of them were Welsh International, so they were great in terms of elite role models as well.

“My mum was a really active sportswoman great runner and taught me a lot about how to look after myself physically and so on.”

What does it mean to you to be a woman in sports?

“I think it means a lot to me to be a voice for other women in sport. I like to champion and advocate and whether that’s in football or beyond. And because I’m not afraid to challenge I think I’ve been able to spark at least really significant debates in UK sport, even if at times that was a bit uncomfortable for the board. But it’s always been important to me to challenge and press and stretch our horizons.”

What advice would you give to a young girl who is just starting off in sports?

“Be confident, have an ambition and keep your eye on the ball. If your ambition is to play for your country, or coach for your country, or referee or be an administrator, then think about the stages to get there and do as much as you can to learn from others.

“Approach us all and ask for advice. Always come with an ask. Don’t just say, can you help me? Say, I am doing X, Y and Z and I want your advice on this specific aspect of it. You’re much more likely to get a response from people then who are obviously busy and stretched time wise, rather than a general approach. Say to them exactly what you’re after and what you’d like to hear from them about.

“Most women particularly are really happy to help and to support other women in sport, especially those who are coming behind us.”

What do you think is the biggest barrier in driving the visibility of women’s sports?

“Well, we’ve seen big improvements in the visibility of women’s sport, but it does come down to voice and agency in terms of broadcast rights. We need to make sure that we still have the same commitment to fund women’s sport and broadcast rights in the same way as we do men.

We need to think about the commercialisation of women’s sport in a different way because it’s got different values and I think that will assist with the visibility as well. And I think we’ve just got more work to do to broaden the pyramid of women’s and girls participation because the more people who participate, the more routes there are to C and B sport.

We’ve seen with our national team in Wales and near qualification for the World Cup and of course England and the Euros for them, really significant moments where we saw a breakthrough in terms of the profile and the visibility and the values of women’s sport. And I think that’s really, really important to me.”