Organised under the auspices of the Council of Europe but hosted by the Great Britain Sports Council and the Central Council of Physical Recreation (CCPR), the ‘Women and Sport: Taking the Lead’ seminar at Bisham Abbey, UK, had a significant impact on European, and future international, women and sport activism. The seminar was a culmination to a series of seminars throughout Europe in the 1980s that shifted focus for women and sport away from discussing how to increase general participation rates towards action in aiding women’s progression into positions of power. There were many outcomes, including the European Sport Conference (ESC) choosing women and sport as its biennial theme for discussion and understanding and amending its own Charter. An interim working group formed at Bisham Abbey became an official ESC Working Group on Women and Sport (ESCWGWS) a month later (see 1989 Oct).