As part of its Advantage All gender equality initiative, the ITF is profiling female leaders and role models from within the sport. It follows a 2020 ITF Female Leadership Survey that identified the lack of female role models as one of the greatest challenges women face in their careers.

While 47% of all tennis participants globally are women, there is still a large gender gap in coaching, officiating and sport decision-making, all the way from club level to the top of the sport. By raising the profile and sharing the experiences of female leaders from around the world, the Advantage All Ambassadors series aims to encourage women to pursue opportunities in tennis and fulfill their potential within the sport. To find out more about Advantage All, click or tap here.

Jennie Price learned to love sport the hard way. As a child, watching her father’s rugby matches from the sidelines or joining him on the terraces left her thinking it simply wasn’t for girls. A schools tennis talent search programme passed her by based on the evidence of a single shot. In time, she came to understand the transformative power of sport – and, crucially, how to harness it.

Now the Independent Chair of the Tennis Integrity Unit Supervisory Board, Price is credited with raising the number of grassroot sports participants in the UK by millions over the past decade, with particular success in getting women and girls to engage, or re-engage, with sport and exercise – some achievement for a woman who “never thought I would end up working in sport.”

“I didn’t spend my initial career in sport,” explains Price, whose current role is based at the ITF headquarters in Roehampton, London. “I qualified as a lawyer, I worked in law for about ten years and then for the government, doing various senior roles in the construction industry and the environmental sector. I guess if I had a specialism, it was about changing people’s behaviour, and I think that’s what led me to Sport England.”

Prior to joining the TIU in 2019, Price spent 11 years as CEO of Sport England, the first woman to assume the role. From 2007 to 2018 she was responsible for the annual investment of £320 million into grassroots sport, pioneering a shift to an insight-driven approach as London prepared for, hosted, and looked to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

'The thinking that underpins This Girl Can has definitely got a wider application. That was one of the most exciting things about it – it became a mantra for empowerment of women in lots of areas'

Under Price’s stewardship, Sport England raised its number of regular participants in sport by 1.6 million and implemented the first Governance Code in English sport, while her leadership of the multiple award-winning This Girl Can campaign is credited with encouraging millions of women in the UK to start exercising on a regular basis – a campaign sparked by a conversation in the stands with then-Secretary of State Maria Miller at the Paralympics.

“We were sat on a bench watching visually impaired football and she said to me, ‘I want to do something about women’s sport.’ I did what all good civil servants do: I said, ‘Oh Minister, we’re doing so much about women’s sport, let me tell you what we’re doing.’ Then she looked at me and said, ‘No, Jennie, I really want to do something about women’s sport – I want to do something about participation rates.’”

Within three years, This Girl Can was launched. Having identified fear of judgement as a key determining factor in the long-standing gender gap between male and female participation in sport and exercise, the national advertising campaign challenged this and other concerns by showing women of all ages and abilities leading active lives, playing sport, and working out in gyms and pools, switching the audience focus towards a sense of belonging, camaraderie and self-worth.

“The way we chose to tackle it was by showing real women – not actresses, not models, not sports stars, but people that we literally found running in the street or working out in the gym or playing on the netball courts and said we want to film you,” Price explained. “It was a huge risk, but it paid off unbelievably because women saw themselves and it started a different kind of conversation.”

'You have to get over that dialogue in your head that says, "Am I really good enough to do this, do I belong here?" I’ve learned that firstly, everybody feels like that, and secondly, yes you are and yes you do'

This Girl Can was credited with encouraging 2.8 million women and girls in the UK to start exercising regularly in its first two years, and in 2017 Price received a CBE for services to sport. In her role as ITF Advantage All ambassador, she firmly believes the same principles apply when it comes to tackling gender inequality in the workplace.

“The thinking that underpins This Girl Can has definitely got a wider application,” Price said. “That was one of the most exciting things about it – it became a mantra for empowerment of women in lots of areas. I have absolutely no doubt that that principle, about fear of judgement, applies to women in the professional context, and certainly in sports administration. 

“There is academic evidence that when a man looks at a job description, if he can do around 60% of it, he will apply for the job; if a woman looks at it and she can’t do over 90%, she won’t. Women tend to judge themselves very, very harshly, and only if they can over-perform, in their judgement, will they go for something. I’ve had to take a few leaps of faith in my career, and you have to get over that dialogue in your head that says, ‘Am I really good enough to do this, do I belong here?’ I’ve learned that firstly, everybody feels like that, and secondly, yes you are and yes you do.”

But Price is quick to acknowledge that such a mindset takes a certain kind of bravery, particularly for women in roles where they represent the minority. And while she does not believe she has faced barriers in her working life as a woman, she knows that sexism can still surface in the most unexpected and shocking of ways.

“When we talk about equality, having just a few individuals scattered around does not fix it,” Price said. “You need to have enough of each gender for it to be completely normal for men and women to be in that space, and actually I think that works for practically every group in society. If you are a visible minority, and particularly if you are the only one, it is very hard not to be the symbol of that one thing because it should not define you. 

'If you’re brave enough to admit the moments you find hard, you communicate even more effectively'

“You cloak yourself in your confidence and your determination,” she added. “I don’t think I faced particular barriers because of my gender, but I haven’t always told the truth about how it feels. When we launched This Girl Can, I suddenly realised I had to talk about myself, so I told a personal story.

“I was training for the Moon Walk, a 26-mile walk done overnight in your bra that raises money for breast cancer. I was on a training walk, I thought doing really well, when a man shouted something completely unrepeatable at me from a shop door. I was absolutely horrified and really embarrassed. I didn’t tell my husband, I just went and had a private weep. I didn’t train for another two weeks.

“In the end I thought, For God’s sake Jennie, get over yourself, this is a charity event, go out again. So I did – but it was really hard.

“I told that story on stage in front of 500 people, and it was the first time I had ever talked about it. What I found from that experience is that if you’re brave enough to admit the moments you find hard, you communicate even more effectively. That was the speech of my life, and the reception of my life, and I’m really glad I did it. I have repeated that story a few times – I always have to take a deep breath before I do – but I guess that was my personal barrier.”

Price has shed tears for the right reasons in relation to sport – she fondly recalls the night she was in the stadium when Great Britain’s Jonnie Peacock won gold in the 100m T44 in front of a cacophonous 80,000-strong crowd, one of the standout moments of the Games.

“I think it made lots of people cry!” Price said. “I just felt so proud to be part of a sporting system that produced athletes like that and produced a Paralympics that could fill a stadium and excite people to that level. I played a tiny part in that but just to be part of a system that could do was amazing.”

'Tennis has a flying start, but that has to translate into grassroots opportunities: into officiating, leadership roles, and governance. It’s got a great pool to draw from'

Price has been in her current role for a year and a half. As Chair of the TIU Supervisory Board, she sits with four independent board members and four representatives from the world of tennis representing the ATP, WTA, ITF and Grand Slam Board to oversee the work of the anti-corruption body responsible for professional tennis worldwide.

A tennis fan since childhood, Price is thrilled to continue her work in a sport with a history of challenging gender inequality, even if much work remains to be done.

“In many ways tennis has had equality for a long time,” Price said. “The Grand Slams showcase both the women’s and men’s game equally, and they have equal prize money. Tennis has had some of the best female role models sport has ever had, and some of the highest earners – and that matters, because that brings commercial power and real clout and coverage. If you were to ask me even beyond the tennis sphere who I admire most, Serena Williams and Billie Jean King would be right at the top of the list.

“So tennis has a flying start. But that has to translate into grassroots opportunities: into officiating, leadership roles, and governance. There I think it has some work to do, because it’s got a great pool to draw from. It needs to draw from it, which is why this campaign is so important.”

Through Advantage All, the ITF is committed to improving gender equality in all areas of the game to ensure tennis is a leading light in sport and society while empowering, inspiring and enabling women and girls to reach their full potential. Achieving gender equality beyond the court in tennis requires those in power to pay greater attention to the gender balance of their organisations, but it also requires women to place trust in their abilities – to believe that this girl can – when opportunities arise.

“To those women thinking, ‘Can I do it? Shall I do it?’ Feeling like that is completely normal, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t and you shouldn’t. I would say, give it a go and also be true to yourself, do it in your way – people pick up on authenticity – and you will find the right place to be. So be brave, don’t worry about being worried, just take that step.”