A new strategy to promote women in sport through the United Nations

Johanna AdriaanseChair International Working Group on Women and Sport

University of Technology, Sydney

8th European Women and Sport ConferenceOctober 2009, Limassol - Cyprus

WOMEN CELEBRATE!

Sydney Olympics: Centenary of women’s participation in the Olympic Games

PROMOTING WOMEN ANDSPORT

Women’s participation in the Olympic Games1896: 0%2000: 38%2008: 42%

SEARCH FOR A NEW STRATEGY

Key issues

• More women in sport leadership and decision making roles

• Equality in prize money and reward

• Lack of media coverage

• Addressing violence, trafficking, sexual harassment and abuse

• Sport for women and girls with disabilities

The challenge: How to bring about further positive change?

Search for a new strategy to promote women in sport

COLLABORATION WITH UN

• UN DAW publication Women 2000 and beyond: Women, gender equality and sport

• Launched in February 2008 in partnership with IWG and WSI at UN Headquarters in New York

SPORT: MORE THAN A GAME

• Development of leadership, tolerance and respect, social inclusion, social network

• Contribution to UN Millennium Development Goals: Health, education, employment, peace and security

• Persistent gender inequalities

• Identifies key issues

• Set of recommendations

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPWITH CEDAW

Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

• international bill of rights for women

• 30 Articles: key principles of gender equality

• adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly

• 185 out of 192 member countries are ‘party’ to CEDAW

• countries report to CEDAW at least every 4 years

• Use CEDAW as framework for reporting/monitoring

3-PRONESTRATEGY

• Articles 10 and 13 specific references to sport and PE

• Other articles applicable to the context of sport

• Three-prone strategy

1. Urge governments to include statements on sport in their report to CEDAW

2. Encourage NGOs to contribute to country’s NGO Shadow reports

3. Sensitise the CEDAW Committee to gender discrimination in sport

AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLE

Example of my contribution to Australian NGO Shadow report referring to Article 13:

“We acknowledge the Australian Government’s commitment to developing and supporting women’s leadership in every aspect of Australian society including in the realm of sport. The current Minister for Sport is a woman and we congratulate her for appointing in 2008, three new female directors to the Australian Sports Commission resulting in 50% female representation on the board. We commend Federal and State Governments for initiatives such as the Sport Leadership Grants for Women programs, and Women’s Sports Leaders Scholarships .”

AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLE Cont.

“However, recent research (Adriaanse, 2008) indicates that women’s representation in sport governance in the voluntary sector remains markedly low. In 2008, on boards of the 57 publicly funded National Sport Organisations (NSOs) women’s representation was 22%. Twelve out of the 57 NSOs had no female director and twenty NSOs had only one woman on their board. The most prestigious position of President was held by a woman in only five out of the 57 (8.8%) organisations.”

AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLE Cont.

“We recommend that the CEDAW Committee • Suggest that the Australian Government seriously considers the use of targets for women’s representation on NSOs which steadily increase over time and are linked to funding

• Call for systematic collection of key indicators (statistics) on gender distribution in sport governance and evaluate the influence of women’s voice in shaping policies and resource allocations

• Encourage the Australian Government to lead the implementation of the recommendations of the UNDAW publication Women 2000 and beyond: Women, gender equality and sport re. Women in leadership”.”

STRENGTH OF STRATEGY

• Involves government bodies and NGO s

• Includes all aspects of sport

• Impacts on sport from grass roots to elite level

• Can be applied globally