This short article addresses the progress that has been made for women and girls in sport in Europe. It begins by discussing definitions of equality, discrimination and equity. It then discusses strategies for achieving equal opportunities. The article then outlines the work of the European Union in relation to equality in sport. It ends with an overview of the work of the European Women and Sport group since 1994.

What is meant by the terms equality, discrimination and equity in relation to sport? Equality means that women and men have the same rights, obligations and opportunities in all main fields of life, sport included: and that women and men share power, influence and responsibility in all sectors of the community, sport included. Discrimination is where someone is treated unfairly on the basis of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age. Equity in sport is about fairness. Equity is achieved by ”Changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to everyone in society” (Sport England, 2000).

To fulfil the fairness goals of gender equity in sport, it is necessary to have equality of access and to both recognise inequalities and take steps to address them.

Equality is where persons are treated the same. Equity is where all persons are given fair access to social resources, while recognising that they may well have different needs and interests (Kidd and Donnelly, 2000) (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Assumptions about fairness
Equality focuses on creating the same starting line for everyone; equity has the goal of providing everyone with the opportunity to reach the finish line.

It is easy to recognise unequal opportunity where:

One highly visible example of inequality is in the leadership of the International Olympic movement, where 1/11 (9%) of Executive Board Members are women, 16/110 (15%) of IOC Members are women and 3/25 (12%) of Honorary Members are women (Bennett, 2008). The IOC set targets of 10% women by 2000 and 20% by 2005 to improve the gender balance in the Olympic movement (Henry et al., 2004). Despite the setting of these targets - which have not been achieved, even today - some people feel that they were far too modest and that a much greater order of structural (quantitative) change in all roles and at all levels is required if the culture of Olympic sport is ever to become truly welcoming for both men and women.

There are several well-known strategies for pursuing equal opportunities in sport:

Each of these approaches has its critics. Equal treatment, for example, does not necessarily lead to equal outcomes for women and men: some argue that it continues to treat men as the norm, against which women’s performance in sport and sport management, is measured. Positive/affirmative action is based on overt recognition of difference but some argue that it merely assists women to become more like men and gives them preferential treatment (positive discrimination): many people feel that this is unfair and, in some national legal contexts, it is actually illegal.

‘Gender mainstreaming’ in sport refers to the embedding of gender equality as an outcome of all sport regulations, policies and programs. This approach was adopted by the European Union (EU) in 1995 as a new approach to promote gender equality: the concept is still under debate, however. It focuses on systems and structures that produce deficiencies and disadvantages and seeks to integrate equality into these systems and structures (Rees, 2002). Gender mainstreaming also has its critics, many of whom ask if it is just “old wine in new bottles?”

Tools used to deliver a gender mainstreaming approach include (Rees, 2002):

We will focus on just on the third of these here - gender balance in decision-making. Gender balance is not achieved at 10, 20 or 40% representation. In Norway, the minimum representation of either sex on a public board of committee is 40%. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has been ratified by more than 150 states, almost all of which have undertaken to comply with its provisions. One ultimate goal of this Convention is to achieve gender balance in international organisations and bodies. By this is meant 50:50 distribution between the sexes – which would be a huge step for many sporting bodies.

The transformation of an organisational culture lies at the very heart of gender mainstreaming and gender equity. In order to change the androcentric world of sport, Mercier and Werther (2001) suggest:

Within the EU Directorate for General Education and Culture is The Sport Unit, which is responsible for the following main areas:

In June 2000, the EU adopted the communication Towards a Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality (2001-2005), which identifies five areas of action where operational objectives are pursued in order to make progress towards gender equality:

1. Promotion of gender equality in economic life and particularly in employment-related matters: in sport, the rate of female employment at first glance calls for no particular comment and is even slightly higher. However, given that there are indications that employment in sport is somewhat insecure and that it involves higher rates of part-time work, this is not necessarily a positive point. As far as the salaries of professional sportsmen and sportswomen are concerned, it is clear that the principle of equal treatment frequently does not apply.

2. Promotion of equal participation and representation in political, economic and social decision-making bodies at all levels: the persistent under-representation of women in decision-making contexts in general is a considerable democratic deficit and certainly a serious issue in sport.

3. Full enjoyment of social rights: sport has a social function and, therefore, an important role to play in terms of preventing social exclusion, particularly in view of the numbers of women affected by poverty.

4. Promotion of gender equality in civil life: special attention must be paid to women suffering from multiple discriminations and to those who are victims of sexual violence or of sexual or moral harassment. In sport, this can be seen in doping practices, in punishing training programs and in training methods that exploit emotional factors.

5. Promotion of a change in roles and the removal of sex-related stereotypes: sport can play a major role in informal education and thereby help to channel new approaches.

A resolution on Women and Sport was adopted by the European Parliament in June 2003. This resolution set out plans to develop a structure for tackling the question of ’Woman and Sport’ by:

In 2005, the Commission held Expert Meetings on ‘Equal Opportunities through and in Sport’, the purpose of which was to present and disseminate examples of good practice for participation in sport with regard to gender and to people with a disability. Recommendations to the EU from these meetings were:

A White Paper on Sport, adopted by the European Commission on 11 July 2007, has the following Objectives:

The Commission wrote:

In promoting Muslim girls’ and women’s participation in physical activity, the challenge is two-fold: the struggle for gender equality – the right of girls and women to full and equal life opportunities – and respecting cultural diversity and differences – the right of ethnic groups to sustain the cultural practices of gender differences and segregation of the sexes.

The beginning of the Women and Sport movement in Europe occurred in the early 1990s, following a Council of Europe Seminar on Women and Leadership held in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1989. Between 1989 and 1993, a European Sports Conference Working Group on Women and Sport met, convened by Sweden and the UK. In 1994, a free-standing European Women and Sport Group (EWS) was formed, consisting of representatives and contact persons related to or interested in gender equality work of non-governmental or governmental sport organisations. The Objectives of the EWS are:

It would be wrong to suppose that the EWS, or Europe more generally, has necessarily found all the answers to issues of gender inequality in sport. Europe is a fast-expanding region, with many socio-political faultlines and divisions of its own to accommodate and adjust to. Just as elsewhere in the world, Europe’s political and economic stability is compromised by the global uncertainties of fuel shortages, poverty, environmental degradation and sectarian conflict. But, even though there is a lot left to do, we can be proud of the work done for girls’ and women’s sport in Europe.