In this series on UK padel's gender divide, Empower Padel founder Pepita Stonor shares her journey from noticing the lack of women in 2020 to building a 2,500-strong female community, urging parents and families to help balance participation amid LTA data showing just 30% female players.
Following yesterday's coverage of International Women’s Day pledges by the LTA and FIP to address padel's stark gender gap—where LTA data (due next week) shows only 30% of UK players are female—Pepita Stonor is leading grassroots efforts to change that.
Stonor took up padel in 2020 and immediately noticed the imbalance: “It was social and fun but there were no women,” she told the Press Association. In September 2024, she founded Empower Padel to boost female participation and retention. The organization now runs events and maintains a database of 2,500 women, aiming to become the world's largest female padel community.
Stonor highlights padel's accessibility: “With padel, it’s easy to take up – difficult to master – but I started seeing women... really loving it and feeling so much more confident.” She sees the sport's UK boom as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to embed equality early, unlike established sports or padel strongholds like Spain and Argentina (28% top female players). UK junior girls’ events often face cancellation due to low turnout.
Complementing LTA initiatives like She Rallies and women-only sessions, Stonor calls for broader involvement: “It’s also down to parents and aunts and uncles... Making a real effort to bring girls on to court.”