ENGSO Equality Within Sport (EWS) Committee at the European Fair Play Movement (EFPM) Congress
On 4 November 2022, the European Fair Play Movement (EFPM) organised its annual congress, under the theme of “Gender Equality in Sport”. Highly committed to improve equality in sport in Europe, ENGSO EWS Committee was present to facilitate a workshop, with the participation of Linda Rombola and Anabela Reis.
Through the group discussion, participants addressed “Education, press and media, others” and emphasized that gender equality guarantees diversity, which is fundamental to enrich the society and to develop its full potential. When it comes to the existing barriers, the group insisted on the importance to change the language and the mentality, as communication contributed to perpetrating stereotype.
Sport is a relevant area of society and can be a powerful tool to fight against stereotypes.
Their recommendations to sport organisations:
- Raise awareness on gender equality, the existence of stereotypes, their effect and the role that gender equality plays.
- Working on change related to cultural norms and specific models. i.e. the idea that some professions are more men and some others are more for women.
- Sharing good examples. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel but sometimes what we need already exists.
- Passing from theory to practices, implementing concrete actions. In particular, when we work at the grassroots level, we need to understand how to use the data we have to promote something effective.
- Working through education. In particular, the group discussed on the importance of educating Physical Education teachers on the topic.
The congress was aligned with the EFPM 2022 Focus area – Fair Play Education to overcome Gender Discrimination in Sport and the EFPM 2022-2025 Strategy: Fair Play Education encompassing human(istic) values for better Sport.