49ers Work to Build Equality for Women in Sports

As the San Francisco 49ers work to rebuild the team on the field, activities off the field are in full force, especially when it comes to the hiring and mentoring of women and female athletes.

First off, the team will have even more diverse hiring practices as they widen the range of the Denise DeBartolo York Fellowship. Starting this year, the fellowship will include rotations in the following departments: Stadium Operations, Sales, Strategy and Analytics, and Finance.

The 49ers are also making the development of female athletes a priority. On April 22, the 49ers and the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (BAWSI) co-hosted the eighth annual T.H.I.N.K. Gold! Conference presented by Real California Milk. The mission of the event is to “encourage young women to maximize their full potential in athletics, academics and the community, while teaching them to live a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle.”

Photo provided by 49ers.com

The day was jam-packed with activities, as former 49ers defensive end Dennis Brown led the girls in football skills and drills. The Niners Director of Human Performance, Mark Uyeyama, sent participants home with easy-to-do exercises, and the girls had lunch with former Olympians, including Carrie Staley, whose husband you know as 49ers’ offensive tackle and offensive line bright spot, Joe Staley.

“It’s a great opportunity for high school athletes to come out, get together and learn from a lot of strong leaders from different sports,” said Carrie Staley. “It’s amazing that they get to come to a facility like this where they are in a professional environment. This is the top of the top. They spend the day interacting with each other and people from the 49ers, it’s quite the experience.”

In addition, the 49ers V.P. of Football Operations, Jeff Ferguson, focused on injury prevention and rehab.

BAWSI was co-founded by Brandi Chastain, and the 49ers first became involved with them for the first T.H.I.N.K. Gold! Conference in 2009. Since then, the organization has worked with 400 girls.

“…[Joe and I] have a daughter, who I hope one day enjoys sports too,” said Staley.” It’s great to be able to share our love of sports with her and these girls here today.”

The number of women in sports is growing on and off the field, but there’s still a long way to go towards parity and equality. It’s nice to see the Niners making it a priority of the organization. Go Niners!

More photos from the conference:

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