When We Give, We Gain: Supporting International Women’s Day 2026 through sport and spirit

International Women’s Day is not only about the public arena – for us, it is also about workplace culture, who is heard and who is visible.

We are proud to have already been named best place to work for young people in the UK by The Sunday Times.

Part of the reason for that is initiatives such as women@E.ON, the company’s international women’s network spanning 28 locations across 10 countries, plays a vital role.

Established in 2019, it connects, mentors and amplifies female colleagues, making role models visible and fostering cross-company collaboration.

At E.ON, giving in the workplace means providing mentorship, introductions, advocacy and space for leadership.

Because a diverse workforce is not a side note to business strategy – it is central to it.

On 8 March, the world celebrated International Women’s Day – a movement now more than a century old, started in 1911 and now echoing across continents with a simple belief: equality belongs to all of us.

This year’s IWD theme is Give To Gain.

It asks the question: What will you give to advance gender equality?

Alongside E.ON’s workplace initiatives, our answer to that question is also visible in our partnerships.

They mean our commitment to advancing gender equality is stitched into sports shirts, woven into community programmes, heard in locker rooms – and recently echoed across Wembley Stadium.

It looks like solar panels on grassroots football clubhouses and mentoring networks across borders, all of which are part of our continuing commitment to women’s sport – not as a sponsorship tick-box, but as a belief that when women thrive, we can all rise.

When we give – in terms of opportunity, investment, visibility and trust – we gain something immeasurably larger: progress.

Nottingham: Where energy meets ambition

In the heart of the Midlands, our partnerships with Nottingham Forest Women and Nottingham Forest Netball is far from simply a branding exercise – it is a statement of intent in shaping a better future for everyone.

E.ON Next became the front-of-shirt sponsor for Nottingham Forest Women as they stepped into full-time professionalism – a tangible signal women’s sport deserves the main stage.

At the same time, E.ON Next also strengthened its role as Principal and Front-of-Dress Partner for Nottingham Forest Netball, backing not only the elite Super League side but also the Performance Pathway and Community Roots programme – investing in tomorrow’s athletes as much as today’s.

This is what ‘giving’ looks like in practice for E.ON in our partnerships:

• Giving visibility – providing tickets to matches through the Nottingham Forest Community Trust.
• Giving resources – to grow pathways and participation from grassroots clubs up.
• Giving expertise – to support with infrastructure such as the solar-powered Fan Zone at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground.
• Giving belief – that elite women’s sport belongs at the centre, not the margins.

All of it adds up to energy fuelling empowerment.

Wembley: Listening before leading

Along with those tangible displays of giving, E.ON is also actively listening.

Last year, we launched our Powering Performance survey at Wembley Stadium with figures including Judy Murray, pictured above.

It became a symbolic venue for a serious conversation.

And it cames on the back of stark data: 1.9 million fewer women than men play sport each week in the UK.

Figures also show by 14, boys are twice as active as girls.

That gap is not about talent.

It is about access, culture, confidence and opportunity.

The launch of our sports survey – the results of which will be out this spring – brought together more than 150 voices from sport, media and business.

They included tennis coach Judy Murray, former England footballer Eni Aluko and Nottingham Forest Netball’s head coach Chelsea Pitman.

The event was not a ceremony. It was a call to action.

Because before you can power change, you must understand the barriers.

You can still take part in the survey here – and it’s open to everyone from athletes to parents, coaches and fans.

It asks what has too often gone unasked: What stands in the way? And what would help you stay in the game?

Giving, in this context, means giving a voice to those who want to take part in the survey.

The Lionesses: A movement, not a moment

When the England Women’s Senior Team hoisted up the EURO 2025 trophy, it felt like history repeating – and rewriting – itself.

E.ON’s partnership with The Football Association and support for the England senior women’s team reflects shared values: inclusion, resilience and equality.

They follow the success of the transformational Made for This Game campaign to continue the drive to unlock equal opportunities for all women and girls to access, participate and thrive in football, while showing it is a sport where they belong. 

This aligned with a historic period of growth for the women’s game, which, according to England Football, saw a 56% increase in the number of women and girls playing football, as well as an 88% surge in the number of female coaches being developed and a 113% increase in the number of female referees.

It came after the Lionesses’ EURO legacy wish was achieved with a transformational UK government announcement to help every girl in England follow in the team’s footsteps.

The game-changing decision to provide girls with equal access to football in schools, as part of an all-sports pledge, was the result of the open letter to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss signed by all 23 players in the England EURO winning squad days after their historic win at Wembley Stadium on 31 July, 2022.

These steps forward are what happens when opportunity is widened.

But the Lionesses themselves have been clear: the work isn’t done.

Equality in sport, as in society, is not secured by a single trophy.

It requires sustained investment – in facilities, in school sport, in grassroots clubs.

Through initiatives such as our partnership with England Football, working together to deliver the Greener Game programme – which is committing £1.5million annually to making grassroots clubs across England more sustainable – we have already helped community clubs reduce energy bills by up to 25%, reinvesting savings into coaches, kits and keeping the floodlights on.

It shows we have again given infrastructure, stability and momentum – and we are gaining a fairer game all the time.

E.ON has long recognised that International Women’s Day is not only about the public arena.

It also doesn’t belong to one organisation, one campaign, or one country.

The idea of IWD is also advanced by initiatives such as the Fast Forward PLACE Network – the career accelerator program based in Paris for women from migration backgrounds, aimed at helping them develop entrepreneurial or employment-based careers.

There are also women on leadership initiatives in the UK, aimed at correcting gender imbalances in senior roles across sectors.

Major initiatives include Advance HE’s Aurora programme for higher education, the FTSE Women Leaders Review, WFTV's Fearless Leadership programme, and The King’s Fund’s Circles initiative, focusing on networking, mentoring, and skill-building.

As feminist trailblazer Gloria Steinem once said: “The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist, nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

And that is why, at E.ON, celebrating women is not confined to a single day in March – it is reflected in how we champion our colleagues, invest in pathways, and stand alongside partners who share our belief that equality strengthens everyone.

Complete our Powering Performance survey here and find out more about careers at E.ON at this link.