Sport for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

Duration 1 Week

Effort N/A

Fee INR 1200 / USD 20

Start Date Registration Open

Language English

Location Online

Course Rationale

Gender equality is a fundamental human right, and essential for us to advance towards a peaceful and sustainable society. While significant progress has been made globally towards achieving gender equality in recent years, numerous challenges such as archaic social norms, pervasive stereotypes, discriminatory policies, sexual harassment, violence, and the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions continue to persist.

For instance, globally, an estimated 736 million women have been subjected to physical and sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both atleast once in their lives ( UN Women, n.d.). Furthermore, as we delve into the ongoing nature of these challenges, specifically within the sports domain, a mere 26.9% of women are in executive positions within international federations spanning various sports (SIGA, 2023). 

In recent years, several key stakeholders from the sport and development sectors have begun to understand the significant positive impact sport can have on women’s empowerment and its potential to contribute towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality. 

This course aims to provide participants with a common understanding of gender and its role in society, as well as the several gender norms that are perpetuated through sport. Furthermore, it highlights the role that sport can play in empowering women and girls, as well as in providing equal opportunities to all in society, with the end goal of achieving gender equality. 

The course has been designed to make it relevant to practitioners, government officials, policy makers, social workers, sports trainers and managers as well as students and researchers who have limited insight into S4D, but are interested in building their knowledge and capacity to integrate S4D approaches within their overall development frameworks, in particular those focusing on gender and equality.