Paper Presentation XI:
Gender, Sports and Generation – Children and Elderly People
Monday, April 12, 10.00–13.00

Marianne Meier
Swiss Academy för Development

As a matter of fact sport and especially football are male domains from a historical perspective. Women had to struggle for every single discipline to be admitted to the Olympic Games during the 20th century and beyond. In most parts of the world sport is considered “unfeminine” and inappropriate for girls and women even today. Females are considerably under-represented at all levels in sport (athletes, coaches, media, managers, board members, spectators, etc.) no matter what country. Therefore, if sport is used as a tool for social change and development, special measures have to be taken in order to allow girls and women to be actively involved.

It has been decided to focus on “gender equity” as cross-cutting core development outcome during the Pilot Phase. Within the scope of this Report only a few key questions could be analysed in-depth. But these first steps allow outlining some trends which then hopefully can be focussed on at a later stage. The quantitative data used in this chapter on gender equity is especially focussing on children. Adult opinions are added in form of qualitative data (interviews, focus group discussions).