A year ago, Anne Noske (41) was elected as the first vice president in Hertha club history. BILD met him before the rally on Saturday (11 am, Messe Berlin). In the first of a two-part interview, Noske advocates for women to be more visible and present in the male-dominated game of football.
Ms. Noske, after being elected, you certainly became a role model for many women, right?
Anne Noske: It’s amazing how many girls and women have sought contact since the election. I would never think like that. I was originally just a simple member of the presidium, before the idea emerged from the presidium that it would be a sign for our association to have female “bad qualities”. In this role, women’s football is very important to me, but I am also committed to increasing the visibility of women. I am often asked to speak on the podium and most recently I was in Hamburg in October at the Sports Summit of the network organization “Football can do more”. Topic: How can we get more women involved in our sport?
Hertha President Fabian Drescher (43/l.) and Vice President Anne Noske were elected to 2028 and won their vote by a large margin
There must be something to do, right?
We need more women in the business of football – both those working voluntarily on committees and those working full time. Just look at the management or management level in leagues 1 and 2 as well as in the DFB or DFL. It can be seen that football still has great potential to be developed here. Men don’t lose anything when women are there; what happened was just the opposite. With women you get a different perspective, a broader view. Women ask different questions and have different perspectives. The world of football, which was previously only dominated by men, is no longer up-to-date and modern. We can only make progress if this is discussed and reinforced over and over again.
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You yourself are there Herta a year ago she was also the only female candidate out of 30 presidential contenders.
So far, many women have been reluctant to decide to volunteer or apply for full-time work at football clubs. Too bad! For many people, the time factor is the reason. It’s harder if you have a family. I also have small children and a day job, but I consciously decided to accept this challenge.
“The world of football, which used to be dominated only by men – is no longer up-to-date and modern.”
Which woman is currently still a member of the Hertha committee?
There is currently only one other woman, Barbara-Wegner-Ottow, on the Council of Elders. Barbara will run again in the election on Saturday. I would love to see more female candidates running in future elections. It doesn’t have to be president; You can also make extraordinary contributions as a simple member of the executive committee. Next year there will be an election for the supervisory board. I want to see suitable candidates. Since February, we have also had a women’s football division manager in our football department, Miriam Stoelzel.
Anne Noske (third from left) is the only woman on Hertha’s board of directors. She wants to encourage more women to apply to all Hertha committees
Do you see yourself as Hertha’s first female president in the future?
I’m very happy with my vice president position and Fabian (Drescher) is a very good president. Personally, it is more important to me that the committees at Hertha BSC have more female representatives. I would like to see that I am not the only woman on the executive board and that we also have female members on the supervisory board, association tribunal and audit committee, which currently only have male members. I would love it if we had at least one woman on all committees!
“I would love it if we had at least one woman on the entire Hertha committee!”
What else do you think women might be afraid of?
Many of the women I spoke to believed that they did not have the necessary soccer skills because they had never played before. Men are much more confident. I believe I can remove this fear from every woman. I’ve never played football either, but I worked here for twelve years (as press spokesperson, editor) and learned the structure and processes this way. All this can be learned. Whether as a volunteer or full time: I can only encourage every woman who has a basic interest in football to take this step.
“I’m sure I can remove this fear from any woman. I’ve never played football either!”
And what proportion of women are among Hertha’s 60,000 members?
Currently only around 20 percent of our members are women, even though there are many Hertha sympathizers. We want to attract their attention even more through more attractive offers – through initiatives and empowerment measures, such as planned women’s meetings or special consultation hours. It’s great that a documentary about our women’s team can now be seen on our YouTube channel. This gives women a different, more natural and visible stage.
Read part 2 tomorrow: What the Hertha women’s team does differently to Union and why they play against the men.
