Sport as a vehicle for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls

". . . [M]y trainers taught me to believe in myself . . . I was inspired and learned determination and dis­cipline. Sports allow you to get to know yourself."

—Nawal El Moutawakel,

the first Olympic gold medallist

from Morocco (1984 Olympics

—hurdles)³⁹

The relationship between gender equality and sport is not solely about achieving equality in women's partici­pation and treatment within sports, but it is also about promoting "sport for gender equality", or harnessing the potential of sport for social empower­ment of women and girls. Sport offers a valuable channel to strengthen wom­en's and girls' capabilities and provide information on important social issues, such as health, HIV/AIDS and women's rights. Women's and girls' participation in sport can also challenge gender ster­eotypes and break down entrenched discriminatory attitudes and behav­iours. Myriam Lamare, a World Boxing

Association champion from France, has said that the punches she lands shake the foundations of society.⁴⁰

Empowering women and girls through sport

Sport can be an important tool for social empowerment through the skills and values learned, such as teamwork, negotiation, leadership, communica­tion and respect for others. The social benefits of participation in sport are thought to be especially important for girls, given that many girls, particularly in adolescence, have fewer oppor­tunities than boys for social interac­tion outside the home and beyond family structures.⁴¹ Women and girls acquire new interpersonal networks, develop a sense of identity and access new opportunities, allowing them to become more engaged in school and community life.⁴² Participation in sport also enables women and girls to enjoy freedom of expression and movement and increase their self-esteem and self-confidence.

It has also been argued that sport and physical education can serve as the basis for a sense of "positive embodi­ment". This concept goes beyond the idea of physical fitness and incorpo­rates psychological benefits and the

pursuit of active spiritual practices. The psychological benefits of physical activity, essential fora sense of positive embodiment, can be acquired through the enjoyment of the physical activity, self-chosen levels of competition, and the provision of social support from the family and the community.⁴³

The concept of positive embodiment implies that women and girls have the right and responsibility to create active, healthy lifestyles to sustain vitality in their lives. There are psychological, emotional and medical benefits to doing so, as well as significant broader

economic and social gains. The con­cept starts with traditional fitness and adds psychosocial wellness strategies and the pursuit of active self-care for body, mind and spirit. Positive embodi­ment requires a lifestyle incorporating self-assertion and self-care which is the basis of a vigorous and satisfying sense of one's own body.⁴⁴

Positive embodiment can be seen as a model of self-care that allows women to achieve a balance between caring for themselves and caring for others. Most women prioritize the needs of others before their own needs, a pattern that often leads to neglect of themselves. As a result, women deplete their resources of time and energy in the care of others. Self-care involves the creation of personal time and space for women and opportunities for posi­tive interaction of the mind, body and spirit. Adoption of the physical embodi­ment approach, with its critical con­cept of active self-care, would require complex changes in lifestyle for many women.⁴⁵

Sport can serve as a vehicle to improve women's and girls' leadership roles and participation in decision-making. The acquisition of valuable skills in management, negotiation and decision-making empowers women and girls to become leaders in all areas of community life, as well as in the household.

The Montreal Tool Kit—A Manual for Change

The Montreal Tool Kit was developed for the Third World Conference on Women and Sport as a reference manual containing 20 tools to help women activists working to increase women's participation in sports. The manual includes tools on advocacy and awareness-raising, such as "Creating an advocacy strategy" and "Non-sexist sport commentary for media"; tools for changing organizations, such as "Terms of reference for a Women and Sport Committee" and "Sample harassment policy"; tools for individual development, such as "Building a case for mentoring"; and other tools for action, such as "Measuring your success".

World Conference, held in May 2006 in Kumamoto, Japan,³⁰ concluded with the Kumamoto Commitment to Collab­oration, which expressed participants' commitment to building a collabora­tive network in order to realize gender equality in and through sport.³¹

Regional processes

Regional bodies also address gender equality issues in sport. For example, in 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed rec­ommendation 1701 on discrimination against women and girls in sport. The recommendation calls on the Commit­tee of Ministers to promote women's sport and women's participation in sport; accord greater importance to school-based physical education for women and girls; conduct awareness-raising among officials in sport, edu­cation and health; support women's participation in top-level sport; ensure equality in terms of pay, prize money and bonuses; ensure that women play a greater role in ruling bodies of sports organizations; conduct an in-depth study of national sport policies; ensure collection of gender-specific statistics; and increase media coverage of women in sport.³² The recommen­dation also calls for the combating of sexual abuse in relation to sport, which follows on from the 2000 Council of Europe resolution on the prevention of sexual harassment and abuse of

women, young people and children in sport (3/2000).³³

In 2002, the African Sports Confed­eration of Disabled (ASCOD) estab­lished a policy on disabled women's and girls' participation in sport and rec­reation. The policy aims to increase the participation of women and girls at all levels of sport and recreation in order to achieve gender equality, and calls on the Confederation and its member nations to bear the duty of advising Ministers of Sport on ways to meet the targets set out in the policy.³⁴

In 2001, the first Asian Conference on Women and Sport, held in Osaka, Japan, led to the establishment of the Asian Working Group on Women and Sport (AWG). The Working Group developed the Asian Women and Sport Action Plan 2001, which sought to expand equal opportunities for women and men and girls and boys in Asia to participate fully in sport.³⁵ The sec­ond Asian Conference, held in Qatar in 2003, adopted the "Doha Confer­ence Resolutions", which encouraged all parties to actively support women and sport.³⁶ The "Yemen Challenge", adopted at the third Asian Conference in Yemen in 2005, emphasized the importance of continued promotion and development of women in sport in Asia and included a request for all Asian Governments and National Olympic Committees to formulate a national women and sport policy by

the 2006 Doha Asian Games, and to include therein a special chapter on women with disabilities.³⁷

The Commonwealth Games Federa­tion also promotes the role of women in sport as participants and as decision-makers. Regulation 6 of its March 2006 Constitution states that the Common­wealth Games retains its status as a leader in promoting gender equality, and that future programmes in sports will have a balanced participation and profile for males and females. Article 17 of the Constitution also states that both women and men shall contribute at least 20 per cent or two of the repre­sentatives on the Executive Board and on the Sports Committee and any other committees and commissions formed by the Executive Board.³⁸

The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport

The Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport calls for:

• Equality in society and sport;

• Sport facilities that meet the needs of women;

• An increase in the number of women coaches, advisers and decision-
makers in sport;

• Education, training and development programmes that address gender
equality;

• Information and research on women and sport;

• Allocation of resources for sportswomen and women's programmes;
and

• Incorporation of the promotion of gender equality and sharing of good
practices into governmental and non-governmental policies and pro­
grammes on women and sport.

adopted at the Third IWG World Con­ference in Montreal, Canada, in 2002, which recognized that the path to real­izing these broader goals involves a

variety of actions, including information and advocacy campaigns and the inte­gration of sport into community devel­opment projects.²⁹ The Fourth IWG

Resolution of the Second International Olympic Committee World Conference on Women and Sport

The resolution, adopted in 2000, calls for a number of strategies and actions to be taken by the International Olympic Committee, Governments and international organizations, including the United Nations system, such as:

• Meeting the 20 per cent goal of women in decision-making by 2005;

• Increasing scholarships and training for women athletes, coaches and
other officials;

• Raising awareness about the positive influence of the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on the
development of physical activity and sport for women and girls;

• Urging the Commission on the Status of Women to recognize the impor­
tance of physical activity and sport to women's and girls' development
at all stages of their lives;

• Raising awareness about the importance of quality physical education;

• Developing strategies and educational material to support physical edu­
cation for girls;

• Implementing sexual harassment policies, including codes of conduct;
and

• Working with the media to ensure a more accurate projection of wom­
en's sport.

International processes

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) plays a central leadership role in the world of sport, and its policies set standards in international, regional and national sporting events and pro­cedures. In 1994, it requested that the Olympic Charter be amended to include an explicit reference to the

need for action on women and sport. This is reflected in the current Charter, adopted in 2004, which states that one of the roles of the Committee is to "encourage and support the promotion of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to implement­ing the principle of equality of men and women."²⁷

In 1995, the International Olympic Committee established a Working Group on Women and Sport, which was elevated to the status of a Com­mission in 2004. The Women and Sport Commission, which meets once a year, monitors the participation of women in the Olympics as well as their represen­tation in decision-making. The Commis­sion organizes quadrennial IOC World Conferences on Women and Sport to assess progress made in women and sport within the Olympic Movement, define priority actions and increase the involvement of women.

The International Working Group on Women and Sport, an indepen­dent coordinating body of government organizations, aims to be a catalyst for the advancement and empowerment of women and sport globally. It was established in 1994 at the First World Conference on Women and Sport, held in Brighton, United Kingdom, organized by the British Sports Council and sup­ported by the International Olympic Committee. At this conference, the Brighton Declaration was adopted and endorsed by the 280 delegates from 82 countries representing Governments, NGOs, National Olympic Committees, international and national sport fed­erations, and educational and research institutions.

The Second International Working Group on Women and Sport World Conference on Women and Sport took place in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1998. The Windhoek Call for Action further developed the aims of the Brighton Declaration, calling for the promotion of sport as a means to realize broader goals in health, education and women's human rights.²⁸This idea was strength­ened in the Montreal Communiqué

Other international and regional policy frameworks

Other processes have also contributed to global and regional policy frame­works on women, gender equality and sport. International bodies that have been particularly active in developing such frameworks include the Interna­tional Council of Sport Science and Physical Education, the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee and numerous groups and networks, such as the Inter­national Working Group on Women and Sport, WomenSport International and the International Association of Physi­cal Education for Women and Girls.

United Nations treaty bodies

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women provides binding obligations for States parties on eliminating dis­crimination against women and girls in the area of sports and physical educa­tion. Article 10 calls for States parties to take all appropriate measures to elimi­nate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education, including ensuring the same opportuni­ties to participate actively in sports and physical education. Article 13 calls for

States parties to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of eco­nomic and social life in order to ensure, on the basis of equality between women and men, the same rights, including the right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all aspects of cultural life.²⁵

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has also reminded States parties, in its gen­eral recommendation No. 25 on tempo­rary special measures, that temporary special measures, such as positive action, preferential treatment or quota systems, should be implemented in the areas of sports, culture and recreation. The Committee further emphasized that, where necessary, such measures should be directed at women subjected to multiple discrimination, including rural women.²⁶