For the second time, the national campaign, This Girl Can, was launched by the De Montfort Students Union (DSU), a week of events set to empower women between Monday 30 January till Sunday 5 February.
The DSU’s This Girl Can campaign aims to empower and encourage women to get involved in various sports sessions and activities that are going to be held across campus.
The launch started with performances from the DMU steppers and Zumba societies at the new campus centre. The performers received boisterous rounds of applause from the crowd before speeches about the campaign proceeded to be held on stage.
Lauren Thomas, Women’s representative at DSU said: “It is important to stand together and fight for what is right, equality.
“Some women cannot take part in sports because of a lack of opportunities. I want this week to give women those opportunities and enjoy themselves. But this week is not only about sport, it’s also about leadership.”
On Wednesday 1 February there will be a ‘Women in Leadership’ event, hoping to explore issues around women in leadership roles and help break down barriers they may face.
Student union president, Dan Winney spoke about the message of ThisGirlCan, saying: “Build that belief that you can, and will achieve anything you put your mind to.
“Today it’s even more important that we stand here together in unity because on the other side of the pond there is a president who is trying to diminish the power of women.”
People in attendance were also given the opportunity to sign a pledge to support women in sport by making sports accessible for women, championing female sports teams and allowing women to have equal opportunities.
Also, this week women can be in with the chance to win a FitBit by posting a photograph of themselves at one of the timetables sessions and tweet it to the DSU Twitter account with the hashtag #ThisGirlCan.
For more information, you can visit the DSU website which has details of all the ThisGirlCan events taking place this week.
