Wiltshire charity aims to use Women's Euros to boost empowerment
FearFree says great strides have been made, but more still needs to be done
A Wiltshire charity wants to use the Women's Euros as an opportunity to inspire and empower more women.
FearFree tells us that the majority of people suffering domestic violence are women, despite many improvements in women's empowerment.
The charity's campaign throughout the tournament, Cheering You On, aims to celebrate women, celebrate communities and support networks that allow people to reach out.
CEO Debbie Beadle says great strides have been made, but there are some ways in which backwards steps have been made.
"We're still seeing quite a lot of toxic masculinity. You know, you're seeing lots of sort of violence that we're seeing sometimes through sexual relationships," she said.
Debbie added: "There's still quite a long way to go in terms of women's empowerment and especially our younger women and girls feeling able to say "no" and have confidence to understand what a healthy relationship is and make sure they can also stand up their rights and feel confident enough to speak up."
The CEO told us that it's a "confusing time" for young people, especially young boys and men, with "mixed messaging" about what it means to be a man in modern society.
"What they're seeing online and information that if they are fed, that's maybe disguised as being empowerment, but actually it's harmful and then, in turn, how that's an impacting on that, how they behave in relationships.
"Sometimes they're not understanding, but then that's often creating situations where young people are in toxic relationships, relationships where there's abuse happening which then maybe leads on to then how they go on to have relationships."
Debbie says it's positive that there are many more tools available to women to feel safe and empowered, with the likes of Clare's Law, which allows a person to find out of their partner has a history of abuse from the Police.
But she said there needs to be more funding capacity to allow these tools to really work their magic within police, social care and the NHS.
Without that, the need to keep awareness up falls to charities like FearFree, with Debbie saying that sport can be a vital key to allowing women to build their networks from an early age.
As the mum of an eight-year-old girl herself, Debbie said it's crucial that there are role models, such as the Lionesses, for young girls to look up to.
She said: "Teams like the Lionesses and seeing really fantastic and successful female athletes is really encouraging because it encourages girls to realise that they can achieve that too.
"I think we'll get there. It's just slowly does it."
One of the gaps that needs to be filled is giving young girls the opportunity to 'get interested' in sport from an early age.
Debbie explained that boys have an instant connection through football, but that girls don't quite have that yet.
Women's Euro 2025 kicks off on 2nd July in Switzerland, with defending champions England entering the tournament on Saturday 5th July.
Sarina Wiegman's team will take on France in their opening game, before facing the Netherlands and Wales in their other two group games.