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6 March 2026  3 min read

'Create a basketball community that's equitable for women and girls', writes BE's Deignan

This International Women’s Day – are we willing to dismantle the structures that limit women and girls in basketball and rise to the UN’s call for rights, justice and action under the campaign’s theme of ‘Give to Gain’.

Basketball is a literal example of the theme.

You can score through passing the ball.

You can defend effectively by trusting your teammate to help.

You can build a winning programme by investing time and energy in your players through practice and game experiences.

The most successful teams understand that elevating others elevates the collective.

When we create pathways for women and girls in basketball, we do not diminish opportunities for anyone else. We strengthen the entire ecosystem. We expand the talent pool. We model the kind of leadership our sport desperately needs.

Rights are not abstract concepts debated in boardrooms. They unveil in many ways, like the fourteen-year-old girl who stops playing because training times clash with family expectations her brothers may never face. Or the female volunteer coach who is passed over for paid opportunities despite having identical qualifications to her male counterpart. Or the talented player who sees no pathway because elite programmes remain stubbornly narrow in who they recruit and how they define potential.

Justice demands we look honestly at where we are failing. It demands we examine our own complicity in systems that preference some voices over others, some experiences over others, some bodies over others. It demands we stop congratulating ourselves for incremental shifts when transformational change is what integrity requires. Justice is not comfortable. It asks us to give up space, to share power, to listen when we would rather speak, to follow when we are accustomed to leading.

Action is where our values become visible. It is the parent who challenges stereotypes in their child's club. It is the official who refuses to accept casual sexism as banter. It is the administrator who examines every policy through the lens of equity. It is the player who speaks up when teammates face discrimination.

Action is not always grand gestures. More often, it is the accumulation of small, brave choices made consistently over time.

The basketball community is at its best when it embraces what makes us different and harnesses it towards collective purpose. We are coaches and players, volunteers and professionals, young and old, from every background and postcode across this nation.

What unites us is love for a game that demands we show up for each other, that rewards collective effort over individual glory, that insists excellence requires everyone contributing at their highest level.

This International Women's Day, we must ask ourselves what we are willing to Give to Gain a basketball community where every girl sees herself in leadership, where every woman finds pathways not barriers, where talent and determination matter more than gender or circumstance.

The answer cannot be words alone. It must be action. Uncomfortable, consistent, sometimes costly action.

Happy IWD. Do give to gain.

International Women's Day