KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three female leaders of the NFL offered insight and advice Friday morning at the Champion Breakfast hosted by Kansas City non-profit United WE.
Dasha Smith, NFL EVP and Chief Administrative Officer; Sam Rapaport, NFL Senior Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Kimmi Chex, NFL Network On-Air Host, led a discussion about the progress the NFL has made toward equity for women in the League and the work that still needs to be done.
The women said the percentage of women in the NFL league office is at an all-time high of more than 45%. But progress for women in team positions, such as coaches and administrators, still lags behind.
In 2022, only 28% of senior administrators were women, and 32% of team professional staffers were women, according to TIDES annual Racial and Gender Report Card for the NFL.
The panel said the goal is to make sure the NFL and its teams reflect the fan base.
According to a SSRS Sports Poll, women and girls make up 46% of NFL fans.
Some of that progress is thanks to the annual NFL's Women's Forum, an event started by Rapaport seven years ago. Women working in college football are invited to meet with NFL owners, general managers, and head coaches. Twenty-six NFL teams have hired past Forum participants.
Smith urged people in positions of power to take action in their own circles.
"Be intentional. Nothing is going to just happen on its own," she said. "Be very intentional about what your goals are. And your goals don't have to be, 'I want to be at x percent,' or 'I want to be at x number,' it can be something as important as, 'I want to make sure we have the best people in our organization.' But you have to be intentional about it."
Governor Mike Parson also spoke at the event, and talked exclusively to KSHB 41 after the event about what the state of Missouri is doing to increase gender equity.
"I think you see the state of Missouri really moving in that direction. We’re in the middle of the United States and sometimes we’re a little slow to make policy changes, but I think here we’re really trying to step that game up, all the way from my senior staff that’s in my office, all the way to the appointments we make, how we make those appointments, but those are things we want to make sure we’re giving everybody an equal opportunity to do the job," he said.
United WE offers several resources to advance women in civic and economic leadership. More information is available on the organization's website.
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