Gender Equality & Identity at RFU

Increasing the proportion of women and non-binary people in leadership positions and across the game is a key focus of our D&I action plan. We are gearing up for hosting the 2025 Women’s World Cup and are excited about the opportunity for women and non-binary people to feed in to what we hope will be an incredible event. In addition to the focus on increased representation across the four areas of England Rugby, we also support women and non-binary people through our network.

Our Women's Network, inclusive of trans women and non-binary people, was created after International Women's Day 2021, it aims to provide a forum through which members can share and discuss key issues within the workplace and beyond, bringing our voices together to improve issues around representation, culture and equality within the RFU.

Our 50 members come from all areas of the RFU, we meet regularly and use our Microsoft Teams chat to share thoughts and discuss topics informally. 

This year the network coordinated International Women’s Week, with involvement from across the organisation, which featured a full week’s worth of engagement including: Breaking the bias, Closing the Gap, Pregnancy, Work and Support, Allyship and Inclusive Language.