The Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sport
In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on leading American women to serve on the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports.
The members of the Council, which is comprised of current and retired athletes, coaches, corporate executives, journalists, and trailblazers in women’s sport, engage audiences in the United States and overseas to elevate the global conversation on sports as a means of empowerment.
These women have excelled both on and off the field and displayed their strong commitment to advancing the rights of women and girls.
The Council Members will support the broader goals of the Department’s Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative, which brings together all of the Department’s international sports programming, from Sports Envoys traveling overseas to Sports Visitors traveling to the United States, to increase the number of women and girls worldwide who are involved in sports. A key piece of this initiative is the creation of the U.S. Department of State and espnW Global Mentoring Program that connects emerging women leaders from across the globe with their leading American women in sports.
The Council builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power,” which embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools—in this case women in sports—to empower girls and foster greater understanding.
The members of the Council are:
