17 - 23 May 2001
Issue No.534
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 17 - 23 May 2001 Issue No.534 |
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Half - time
Cheering women on
How do you produce female sports managers, coaches and medallists? Internationally recognised speakers are attempting to come up with some answers at a ground-breaking conference on women and sports currently being held in Lillehammer, Norway.
That the issue is being tackled in the Scandinavian country is only fitting since it is the birthplace of the Women's Project. Founded in January 1995, the Women's Project was born out of a disconcerting state of affairs as far as women in sports are concerned. The number of women engaged as coaches, as well as women who could be called leaders within Norway's top echelons in sports was, before the project's start-up, extremely low. This is best illustrated by the fact that during the Lillehammer Games in 1994, there were only three women among 74 officials from the Norwegian Sports Federation.
The situation in 1995, say the project's sponsors, was impossible to overlook. The Norwegian Olympic Committee sought equal sports opportunities for women. A movement towards that goal was rapidly evolving in Norway at the time but apparently not fast enough.
Enter the Women's Project, which focussed on top-level sports management, coaching and the latest research in physiological, psychological and health matters. The dividends were almost immediate. Armed with the slogan "Investment in Women's Sports Pays Off," project officials contributed to the rise of 11 female gold medallists during the last two Olympic Games.
According to the Women's Project, the reason for recruiting more female leaders and coaches in sports is not necessarily because women are better qualified. (In the main, they are probably not). But a large number of highly-qualified women are simply not being recognised for their abilities and, therefore, cannot contribute positively to the development of sports. To pretend such women do not exist is not only discrimination in its crudest form, not only demeaning to the sex but goes against everything the "fair play" motto in sports stands for.
Five years on, delegates in Lillehammer are studying the merits and flaws of the Women's Project whose work ended in 2000. While they will surely find that women have met with acceptance in the world of sports in the last five years, the ultimate goal of taking down the wall of sports sexism will still take some doing. Consequently, we can expect the birth of an offshoot which will continue where the Women's Project left off.
A similar study would do wonders if conducted in Egypt. Such a project could help change attitudes, in the public and the media, and chart a new course for equality for women in sports. It would be at least a change from being off course.
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