Women Leading Change: How Occupational Therapists Can Drive Equity Through Sport and Physical Activity

 

 

 

This Women’s History Month and International Women's Day (8th March), we celebrate women in leadership—not just those with formal titles, but those who shape communities, challenge systems, and drive change. Occupational therapists (OTs) are among them. 

 

Leadership in health and sport isn’t about waiting for permission. It’s about stepping forward, speaking up, and ensuring that every person—regardless of disability, background, or circumstance—has the opportunity to move, play, and belong. 

 

At Sport for Confidence, we work across health, social care, sport, leisure, and community settings to close gaps in participation and health outcomes. We see firsthand how OTs can influence policy, reimagine services, and create meaningful opportunities for inclusion. Yet too often, they don’t see themselves as leaders. 

 

We’d love to see and support more women in OT to step into leadership, challenge inequalities, shape inclusive spaces, and use sport as a tool for occupational justice. 

 

 

Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about navigating uncertainty, asking the right questions, and taking bold action in an unpredictable world. 

 

"A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be." – Rosalynn Carter 

 

For Millie Pollitt, an OT at Sport for Confidence, leadership in OT is more than strategy and pragmatism—it’s a spiritual practice. It goes beyond the pragmatism required to ‘get things done’ and the procedural reasoning needed to ‘do the job.’ Instead, it’s about reckoning with purpose and meaningful participation. It’s about seeing ourselves as part of a bigger ‘we,’ connecting with our own experiences of systemic exclusion and oppression, and being able to ‘go there’ with others while knowing a better, fairer, more sustainable, and joyful way of being in the world exists. 

 

An inspiring OT leader, in Millie’s experience, is someone who can describe and analyse the visible and invisible system barriers that stand in the way. Someone who can share those X-ray specs and say: this is what is stopping fairness, this is what is stopping justice, this is how we are using our power for a better future—how can you help? With this lens, we are all leading. Leadership is about staying sure of our values, maintaining meaningful relationships that inspire and challenge us, and disrupting the status quo. It is about holding onto a vision of a better way while wading through complexity—together. 

 

For Sport for Confidence Occupational Therapist, Sam Studdert, leadership in OT is about showing true compassion and empathy—not just towards service users but also towards colleagues. It’s about fostering a sense of belonging and ownership, particularly for those facing systemic barriers. Sam has seen the power of physical activity to drive social change, citing initiatives like the German football club Welcome United, which supports asylum seekers and promotes social inclusion through sport. It is in these moments—when physical activity becomes a catalyst for connection, understanding, and community—that the transformative impact of OT leadership is most evident. 

 

 

Dr. Clenton Farquharson CBE, Associate Director of Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP), speaks about the power of "critical hope" in leadership. In The King’s Fund Podcast, he shares how hope must be grounded in reality while striving for meaningful change. 

 

"I just believe in holding on to hope, and I think as leaders, hope’s the biggest thing which should bind us. Not just hope to be optimistic, but the kind of hope that keeps you moving even in the darkest times." – Clenton Farquharson 

 

Millie describes this kind of leadership as a practice of connection—one that acknowledges exclusion and oppression but refuses to be paralysed by them. She has seen firsthand how physical activity drives social change, offering people the chance to participate, belong, and reclaim agency over their own lives. This fuels her critical hope: the ability to navigate complexity while holding onto the vision of a fairer, safer, more just world—built together. 

 

That’s why she loves working at Sport for Confidence. Despite all the complexity in this space, there is a clear vision of what justice can be. It’s a community of practice that holds both the vision and the hope while actively building it—fairer, firmer, safer foundations, together. Just as cathedrals were built for connection to something beyond ourselves, OT leaders at Sport for Confidence rebuild connections—to hope, to occupation, to participation, to each other, to systems, and to services. Listen to Clenton Farquharson discuss critical hope in leadership on The King’s Fund Podcast. 

 

 

 

Many women in OT lead every day—without the title, recognition, or pay. They adapt sessions to meet the needs of participants, advocate for systemic change, and mentor new practitioners. 

 

 

 

 

At Sport for Confidence, we believe leadership is not about personal power—it’s about lifting others, working collectively, and creating lasting change. 

 

Lead With Us 

 

 

If you’ve ever advocated for a participant, client, or service user, you’re a leader. If you’ve adapted an activity to make it more inclusive, you’re a leader. If you’ve challenged a system to make it better, you’re a leader. 

 

This Women’s History Month is an opportunity to: 

 

 

The future of leadership in health, sport, and social care isn’t about hierarchy. It’s about collective action. 

 

 

 

Liz Fletcher 

Occupational Therapist and National Lead 

Sport for Confidence CIC 

 

 

 

 

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