8 March marks International Women's Day (IWD), a global day to celebrate women's social, economic, cultural and political achievements worldwide. The day is also a call to action for equality, which is in line with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  

International Women's Day is about celebrating women's achievements, raising awareness for discrimination, taking action to drive gender parity, also seeing a number of missions to increase visibility and calling out inequality.

Like in previous years, a theme has been allocated for the 2025 International Women's Day. This year, the drive is to "#AccelerateAction", as explained on the official IWD website.

The International Handball Federation also celebrates the International Women's Day by higlighting the achievements of women in the sport. With the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship coming up at the end of the year, ihf.info talked with Saskia Lang, a former Germany international, currently working as the Manager Marketing International Events in the Marketing and Communication department of the German Handball Federation (DHB).

Born in Lörrach, Germany, Lang played for TV Grenzach in her formative years, then moved to Switzerland, where she featured for ATV/KV Basel and LC Brühl Handball, before moving back to Germany, where she played for HSV Blomberg-Lippe, HC Leipzig SV Union Halle-Neustadt and Thüringer HC.

Lang also featured 77 times for the Germany women’s senior national teams, scoring 91 goals, before retiring from her playing career in 2020 and then moved to the DHB headquarters in Dortmund, where she forged a path for herself.

And Lang knew from the start that she was going to work in handball one way or the other, after ther playing days were over.

“I knew that I wanted to stay in sport. I was so active that I basically convinced Marc Schober, the chairman of the board of the DHB.  I didn't have a precise plan, but I knew that I wanted to stay in the sport. And if that could be with the German Handball Federation, then I wanted to give it my all. And the fact that it worked out that way in the end makes me all the happier and prouder of what I achieved,” said Lang.

With handball being the life and passion of Lang, it was a perfect fit, especially as DHB has made big efforts to create an equal playing field for men and women, ensuring that the development of the sport has parity between the genders.

“My life now is actually handball 24/7, just like before during my career. And that's exactly what I consciously decided to do. And I'm incredibly proud and I'm also happy that I can continue to be working in handball after my playing career is over. Because handball has been my life since I was little, when I was first in the arena. And that's why it gives me so much pleasure to be involved in it from another position,” adds Lang.

The former left back, who is now 38 years old, finally found her place in the Marketing and Communications Department of the DHB and is in an unique position, managing to use her experience as a player to create new ideas and projects to encourage more women to take up the sport and make it even more popular in Germany and across the world.

“What appealed to me about marketing? After my playing career, I was able to continue to pursue my hobby as a career. And as a former player, you know many facets from the player side. And now being able to use that in the background brings many advantages. Being able to move so much and market handball, especially women's handball, the way it is, is actually easy. Because I love this sport, this sport is great. And it's a pleasure for me to be able to communicate that to the outside world and get lots of young girls and women involved,” adds Lang.

Now, the next project on the agenda was creating and developing a marketing concept for the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship, which will take place between 26 November and 14 December in Germany and the Netherlands, with five venues in the two countries hosting 32 teams in the battle for the coveted world title.

“The IHF Women's World Championship will hopefully change a lot of things. With the World Championship as a flagship event in November and December, we want to use the momentum and this attention for our Hands Up for More campaign: for equal rights, more attention, but also for respect for women's sport,” adds Lang.

The “Hands Up for More” is more than a motto, is the cornerstone of the DHB project to provide more chances for women to develop in handball, as well as coaches and referees in the future. The purpose is to sustainably strengthen women's handball and the position of women in Germany. With targeted measures for more attention, respect, security, substance and commitment, the slogan is to become a movement that offers women a visible stage both in sport and in everyday life

“We have developed this incredibly great campaign with many inspiring sub-campaigns, such as free training for female referees in 2025. But what is even more important, these are not just empty words from the association and not just a great marketing campaign: it is about reducing the difference between men and women, it is the measures that are taking place in the association, that they have committed themselves to saying that both genders must be represented on all committees, or that 50% female staff are employed at the World Championship,” says Lang.

“There are almost a thousand other measures that we have already defined and, above all, that the federation can also be measured, because you can see online what we have defined - under our Five Reasons to Believe. “Hands Up for More” is not only the claim of the IHF Women's World Championship, but it should trigger a movement, female empowerment, attention for women's sport and this respect. And very importantly, this will be a campaign for the federation that will not end after the competition. And, as you can call this legacy, we also want to use it beyond that to raise a lot of awareness and bring many women and girls to handball.”

But will the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship change anything for women’s handball in Germany?

“The growth potential in Germany is huge. We have an incredible amount of potential. We are the largest association in the world in terms of membership. But even there we can see the differences between women and men and the popularity that the men’s handball enjoy, we have an incredible amount of catching up to do as far as women are concerned,” adds the former left back.

“On the one hand, of course, there's the media presence. I work really hard for that every day. And then we also agree that the more presence there is, the more girls and women will naturally come to handball. The potential is huge because we offer a great sport. And we also see at every international women's match that there is great enthusiasm in the stands. And when the kids queue for autographs afterwards, it shows the potential and that handball can be a great sport for little girls.”

A huge change towards equality was made by the DHB from 2025, when the male and female players featuring for Germany’s national teams will receive the same daily allowances. The daily allowances are dependent of the number of the international matches where every player featured for Germany. Male and female players will receive 65 euros per training day from their 26th appearance. The amount increases to 130 euros from the 61st international match, to 195 euros from the 121st, and the maximum amount is 260 euros from the 181st international match. 

“The daily allowance adjustment from the DHB is incredibly important. I think in the end it's important for the players that the money is on par with their male counterparts. But I think the signal that the Federation has set is all the more important. Not just that there is now equality between the players, but to show that we want to be pioneers, that there are no differences between male and female players. The effort is the same for women as it is for men. And to recognise this financially as an association is of course a great sign and important above all,” concludes Lang.