When we say “sport is better with a full kit”, we're saying the participation environment matters - it’s a big part of the ‘kit’.
🎯Sport and Recreation Facilities play a major role in growing female participation.
The nitty: Unwelcoming environments contribute to lower female participation rates in sport and recreation settings. 📈 Historically sporting facilities have been designed primarily to meet the needs of male participants. The result? Unfair investment. Today, community sport and recreation facilities are becoming outdated and, in a vast range of venues, the amenities do not fulfil the needs of women and girls. 🙋
Something we need an awareness of when building new ones. Right?
The gritty: Yes, but how do we get past the talking to the action? 🔭 We lack real-life, deep in the guts of it, examples of this in practice. There aren’t many stories or documented experiences, that tell us what the journey looks like!! We're doing something new!
You might be familiar with women’s rights advocate Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s famous quote: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made”. The same goes for sports infrastructure developments - we need to be in all places where decisions are being made and, I would add, there needs to be a better understanding of the inner workings of unconscious bias to improve female representation AND the procurement of female-led; business, consulting, project teams and projects. What a mouthful. I'm basically saying - recruit more females to deliver in this space.
The creation of sports infrastructure spans three key sectors - Sport & Recreation, Local Government, and Construction. Measuring women’s economic empowerment (and their influence to shape this) also plays a vital part.
Almost two years ago I joined a working group for a community sports facility development. It’s a multi-million dollar project with incredible potential. In this setting, the majority of sports reps are male with a higher male membership base than female. I’m different. I represent a sports club that has an 80% female membership base with lifelong experiences of gender inequity. We know what it looks and feels like. I bring that to the table. But I do wonder about other similar projects across the country and whether there is this level of insight? Sooooo...
👉Inclusivity is a practice. As part of my journey, I’m DARING to write the ultimate playbook on how to deliver more welcoming environments. To share with EVERYONE xx
📷 Photo supplied by James Coleman, Northern Football Federation
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