Sport can change the world and make societies better and fairer. Sport can play a pioneering role - for more equal rights, for equality, for the integration of minorities. Sport can also give rise to new beginnings and courage - for changes that benefit everyone. This was the focus of the joint event "VOICES ON COURT - THE HAMBURG EDITION" as part of the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open, the world-class women's tennis tournament at Hamburg's Rothenbaum. Of course, the focus was also on women's sport in general. Because it is exciting and important, but needs to be given much more attention. All participants in the high-calibre discussion panel agreed on this. But it was also about the Olympic Games, a tennis rules revolution and parental leave for football coaches ...
Sandra Reichel is the tournament director of the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open. For her, this tournament is a flagship project: "It is so important to bring women's sport to the world. Women's tennis is in a pioneering role here."
Whether in sport or the business world. The challenges for women in the quest for equality are complex: often less public attention, fewer earning opportunities, less influence due to fewer women in leadership positions, pregnancy and motherhood.
Julia Jäkel - as a manager, publisher and supervisory board member, one of the most renowned executives in German business - sees the lack of gender equality in sport and society as "structural discrimination that I have no desire to accept".
She was therefore pleased to hear what Maryam Blumenthal - Senator and President of the Ministry of Science, Research and Equality of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg - had to say: "There are more women than men in the Senate in Hamburg. We have to do a lot. And we have to do it quickly. And women's sport formats need more attention and more money."
A lot depends on money. In tennis, money was a key lever in raising the prize money for women at Grand Slam tournaments to the level of the men's prize money. Andrea Petkovic, a former world-class player and current tournament ambassador for the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open, knows that this form of equality is not universally accepted - because men (unlike women) play three sets instead of two (like women) at Grand Slam tournaments.
Petkovic therefore revealed a spectacular idea that she presented to Jamie Baker, the tournament director at Wimbledon, in London. Petkovic: "My suggestion is that at Grand Slams, men and women should play two sets in the first week of the tournament and three sets in the second week. That would put an end to the prize money discussion." A bold, great idea.
But it takes courage and big ideas for change. Julia Jäkel also campaigned in favour of the Olympic Games in Germany. Hamburg would like to apply. Jäkel says: "Size and a little grandeur in thinking are good. The Games in Paris showed how the Olympic Games can be an enrichment for a city and a country."
Katja Kraus agreed with this. The former national football goalkeeper is the Managing Director of Jung von Matt SPORTS and Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of "Fussball kann mehr". Kraus emphasised: "The Olympics is a monument to equality."
However, she also warned: "We need more women in management positions." In professional football, for example, 18 out of 19 new appointments to top management positions were made by men. This imbalance must change. At Bundesliga football club FC St. Pauli, women in top positions are a matter of course and part of the club's DNA. St. Pauli President Oke Göttlich pointed out in general that "those affected need to be listened to more again." Whether women, men or minorities.
When Julia Möhn (Fussball kann mehr) discussed with Senator Blumenthal, Jana Meiser (volleyball player at Eimsbütteler TV), show jumper Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann and actress Anna von Häbler about combining pregnancy and motherhood with a career, it became clear how much room for improvement there still is.
In action, in legislation, with employers - but also in social thinking. Göttlich admitted: "If a male coach in professional football were to take parental leave, I don't know how good his career prospects would be afterwards."
That brought him back to the core. For things to change for the better or even better, thinking has to change. And that also applies to tennis at Rothenbaum. Göttlich's appeal was clear: "It must be possible to promote women's tennis in Hamburg." Through tournaments like the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open. That's good for the city, for sport and for equality.
Matthias Killing, the stadium announcer at the MSC Hamburg Ladies Open, hosted the talk with aplomb. And the TV professional charmingly made it clear that the path to acceptance and equal rights for women's and men's sport is already a matter of course for him at home. Killing wanted to phone his nine-year-old son at home after his business trip to Hamburg. However, he turned him down because - according to Killing - "he said I was disturbing him while he was watching the European Football Championships, the women's European Championships, mind you."
