The NFL Women’s Forum: Women’s Herstory Month

Haven’t heard of the NFL Women’s Forum? Many people haven’t. It’s a well-known secret networking event for the ladies of the league that is in its 9th year. What started as a small meeting has grown into a large event that has helped empower and grow the number of women represented in the league. This forum matters for women and the NFL, so let’s get into it!

Started From The Bottom

Back in the day, in 2017, there was a single head coach and two franchise owners at the forum. The initial goal was to help create a bridge between women working at the collegiate and the professional level. It’s difficult to find a lot of information about the beginning of the forum, but we know by 2021 they had speakers like Bill Belichick and other popular head coaches like Ron Rivera, Bruce Arians, and Sean McDermott featured.

Now We’re Here

In 2025 the forum is an event where there are representatives from all 32 teams. The cohort this year was 40 ladies who are hoping to gain experience – and maybe a job from the NFL. A full list of participants at this year’s forum can be viewed here. They had the famous Mina Kimes moderate a conversation between 12 female scouts in the NFL. Kimmi Chex of the NFL Network also moderated a conversation between the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni, GM Howie Roseman, scout Ameena Soliman, and associate performance coach Autumn Lockwood. Roundtables and panels are sort of the name of the game for the forum.

They Not Like Us

Sam Rappaport, the Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion, was quoted as saying, “The only thing we are proposing is, there is a group of people who are underrepresented, who make up almost half of the NFL fan base who don’t have access to the front door to get into professional sports, where men do. What we’re asking is, give these women an opportunity to get a job.”

Rappaport’s goals are being actualized. The number of female coaches in the NFL has increased by 47% since 2021. Over 450 women have attended the forum, and 250 of those women have gotten jobs within the league. The NFL definitely is committed to diversity since they hired the most female coaches out of any male sports league. There are 15 full-time coaches in the NFL who identify as women. Take from that what you will.

In Conclusion

The NFL Women’s Forum has only been around for nine years, and it’s already hugely successful. Imagine that… a woman ran the event smoothly and it was growing each year. Beyoncé told us a long time ago who runs the world, and she did not lie about that.

We may be golf-clapping over having 15 female full-time coaches and praising the efforts of an organization that is almost exclusively white men in the upper echelons, but it’s a process. Very few women are in upper-level management positions, per the usual for corporate America, but the NFL is hiring females in general, so that’s a start.

The league is hiring more women coaches than any other male-dominated league, so somehow the NFL is the most progressive once again. The bar is beneath the earth’s surface; it’s so low. But we are extremely proud of the efforts made by women and some men who are making a change and creating a pathway for women to enter into the league. Every worthy cause has a start that can continue to be built upon. Go NFL Women’s Forum! Stay tuned for more Women’s Herstory Month articles at The Forkball here.