Maunga Wāhine

The Maunga Wāhine project aims to make sure competitive snow sports is a place where girls and women feel welcome and valued, and where we can grow and thrive, no matter what our snow sports aspirations are. 

We want to better support women and girls, who compete or coach in snow sports, achieve their sporting, professional and life goals, whatever they may be.  And as a result we hope more women will choose some of the exciting careers available right across the snow sports industry.   

We’re focussing on three things: 

1. We’ll develop a profile of a successful female snow sports athlete so it’s clear what characteristics and skills underpin healthy female success in snow sports.  And we’ll do this knowing that many of these characteristics and skills will also support their success in life well beyond the snow.   
2. We’ll use that profile, as well as feedback from female athletes themselves, to provide information, training and development that empowers girls and young women to succeed on and off the snow.  
3. We’ll also work to further strengthen the pipeline of female coaching talent. 

Co-creation is at the heart of Maunga Wāhine. We’ll work directly with female athletes and coaches themselves and we’ll pull in experts in female success to shape our work.  And we’ll collaborate closely with our five pilot resort and club partners who are the life blood of competitive snow sports in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Why: 

In 2022, in collaboration with industry partners and stakeholders, Snow Sports NZ undertook a strategic review.  The main output of that review was a refresh of Snow Sports NZ’s Strategic Intent and during that review a consensus emerged across stakeholder groups that more should be done in snow sports to better support women and girls.   

Women make up 39% of Snow Sports NZ members.  And women and girls make up a smaller proportion of our high performance athletes.  We’ve never had a female snow sports Paralympian or High Performance Snow Sports NZ coach.  And women are also under-represented in most snow sports careers including coaching, guiding, patrolling, judging as well as in governance and leadership positions.  

A similar pattern is seen across most sports.  Historically women and girls have had to fight to be allowed to participate in sports.  And once they’d won the fight to participate, they were largely treated like ‘little men’ with very few adaptations being made to the way those sports were run to better accommodate women or support female success.  But women are not little men and the failure of sporting bodies to adjust or adapt sufficiently, and in some cases their failure to consistently keep women and girls safe, has resulted in women being under-represented in almost all areas of sports participation, competition, administration and sports leadership.    

The good news is that right across the world and here in Aotearoa New Zealand too, this is changing.  Addressing female under-representation in sport by better supporting women and girls is central to the strategies of both Sport New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand.  And it’s this focus that unlocked the Sport NZ funding for Maunga Wāhine.  At Snow Sports NZ we’re stoked to be able to get on with this important work and are excited about the positive impact it’ll make.    

Who: 

Maunga Wāhine is run by Snow Sports New Zealand with funding support from Sport NZ.  Louise Johnson was appointed as the Maunga Wāhine Project Manager in January 2024 and leads this work.  Louise can be contacted at [email protected]